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APR  2o  1920 


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BM   176    .B4    1919 

Bentwich,  Norman  De  Mattos, 

1883-1971. 
Hellenism 


MOVEMENTS    IN    JUDAISM 

PUBLISHED 
Zionism.     By  Pichard  J.  H.  Gottheil,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of 
Semitic    Languages    in    Columbia    University,    New 
York  City. 

Hellenism.     By  Norman  Bentwich,   author    of  "Philo- 
Judaeus  of  Alexandria,"  etc. 

IN  PREPARATION 
Mysticism.     By  Joseph  H.  Hertz,  Ph.  D.,  Chief  Rabbi  of 
the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Ration.\lism.     By  Isaac  Husik,  Ph.  D. 

Reform  Judaism.     By  Samuel  Schulman,  D.  D.,  Rabbi  of 
Temple  Beth-El,  New  York  City. 


MOVEMENTS     IN     JUDAISM 

HELLENISM 


MOVEMENTS   IN    JUDAISM 


HELLENISM 


NORMAN  6ENTWICH 

Author  of  "Philo-Judaeus  of  Alexandria,"  etc. 


Philadelphia 
The  Jewish  Publication  Society  or  America 

1919 


Copyright,  1920. 

BY 

The  Jewish  publication  Society  of  America 


TO  MY  WIFE 

HELEN 

Who  represents  for  me  the  perfect  union  of 

Hebraism  and  Hellenism 

In  Love 

*' I  remember  for  thee  the  kindness  of 
thy  youth,  the  love  of  thine  espousals; 
ho'W  thou  fwentest  after  me  in  the 
njjilderness,  in  a  land  that  ivas  not  soiun." 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface    ii 

I.     Introduction 15 

II.    The  Hellenistic  Culture 51 

III.  Hellenism  in  Palestine  Till  the  Destruction  of 

the  Temple 85 

IV.  Hellenism  in  the  Diaspora 126 

V.    The  Hellenistic-Jewish  Literature 197 

VI.    The  Rabbis  and  Hellenism 250 

VII.    The  Aftermath 297 

VIII.    Conclusion   331 

Notes  361 

Bibliography 377 

Index    381 


PREFACE 

The  title  of  this  book  should  be  rather  Hellenisti- 
cism — if  one  might  coin  the  word — than  Hellenism, 
since  it  is  concerned  not  with  all  the  culture  which 
produced  the  brilliant  civilization  of  classical 
Hellas,  but  with  its  debasement  which  was  spread 
over  the  world  during  the  three  centuries  immedi- 
ately preceding  the  Christian  era.  The  Jewish 
people  both  in  Palestine  and  the  diaspora  were 
constantly  in  contact  with  this  Hellenistic  influence 
which  colored  every  aspect  of  their  thought.  In  the 
first  three  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  they  were 
engaged  in  an  incessant  struggle  with  the  products 
of  that  influence  which  determined  the  bent  of  their 
future  development  and  the  bent  of  the  religious 
history  of  the  world.  The  interaction  of  Judaism 
and  Hellenistic  culture  is  then  one  of  the  funda- 
mental struggles  in  the  march  of  civilization;  and 
Hellenistic  Judaism  is,  after  the  Bible,  the  most  re- 
markable contribution  of  the  Jewish  genius  to  the 
world's  thought. 

I  have  tried  to  show  the  relation  of  this  develop- 
ment to  the  idea  of  Catholic  Judaism,  and  have  con- 

11 


PREFACE 

sidered  the  Hellenistic  J^  "sh  li'  ature  a.'.'l 
philosophy  from  a  standpoint  of  rabbinical  tradi- 
tion. In  taking  up  this  position  I  differ  from  most 
of  those  who  have  treated  of  this  epoch.  They  have 
been  chiefly  Interested  in  the  relation  to  Christian- 
ity, and  have  taken  as  the  criterion  of  value  the 
approximation  of  the  teaching  which  finally  broke 
away  from  Judaism.  Even  Moritz  Fried) aender, 
who  has  dealt  with  the  subject  in  a  number  of 
books,  professedly  from  a  Jewish  point  of  view, 
fixes  his  eyes  on  the  Christian  Church  as  the  end  of 
Hellenistic  Judaism,  and  eulogizes  the  divergences 
from  the  rabbinical  tradition  with  an  ecstasy  of 
which  only  a  faithful  convert  is  capable.  It  is  a 
commonplace  with  this  school  to  contrast  the  broad 
unlversalism  of  Hellenistic  Judaism  with  the 
narrow  legalism  of  the  Pharisees  which  eventually 
prevailed  in  Palestine.  Their  view  does  not  com- 
mend itself  to  me.  The  fusion  at  which  the  univer- 
salists  were  aiming  was  not  with  the  clear  Hellenic 
reason,  but  with  a  lower  amalgam  of  Greek  and 
Oriental  ideas  which  tended  to  debase  Jewish 
monotheism.  Nor  was  it  the  ethical  teaching  of 
Christianity  which  came  from  a  Hellenistic  devel- 
opment, but  its  dogmatic  and  gnostic  elements. 
The  preservation  of  historic  Judaism  was  the  lode- 

12 


PREFACE 

a  of  the  ancient  Rabbis  and  the  sufficient  basis 
oi  their  opposition  to  the  strange  doctrines.  I  have 
often  found  a  parallel  between  the  Jewish  circum- 
stances of  the  present  day  and  those  which  existed 
in  the  Hellenistic  period;  and  as  this  book  is  meant 
to  be  rather  a  popularized  than  a  scholarly  presen- 
tation, I  have  not  refrained  from  pointing  out  the 
lesson.  And  I  hope  that  the  account  of  the  con- 
flict of  Judaism  with  the  culture  of  the  ancient 
world  may  have  a  direct  interest  for  the  Jewish 
life  of  our  own  day. 

The  literature  on  the  subject  is  abundant,  though 
naturally  the  greater  part  of  it  is  written  from  a 
Christian  point  of  view.  I  have  set  out  in  the 
bibliography  the  chief  works  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, but  there  are  two  works  to  which  I  am  un- 
der particular  obligation :  Schiirer's  History  of  the 
Jewish  People  in  the  Tifne  of  Jesus,  which,  in  spite 
of  its  title,  covers  nearly  the  whole  Hellenistic 
period,  and  Bacher's  Agada  der  Tannaiten,  and 
Agada  der  Paldstinensischen  Amorder,  which 
form  the  best  guide  to  rabbinical  philosophy  and 
theology. 

I  have  had  to  write  the  book  at  intervals  and  in 
different  places,  between  legal  work,  and  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  I  have  been  away  from  a 
a  13 


PREFACE 

good  Jewish  library.  I  must  ask  Indulgence  there- 
fore for  the  Inaccuracies  which  I  doubt  not  will  be 
found.  Dr.  Solomon  Schechter,  and  my  brother- 
in-law,  Dr.  Israel  Frledlaender,  made  many  helpful 
suggestions,  and  my  debt  of  gratitude  is  still  fresh 
for  the  more  Indefinite  but  more  precious  guidance 
which  they  have  given  me  to  the  whole  subject. 
London,  September,  1915. 


14 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

In  the  first  of  the  blessings  which  Balaam  pro- 
nounces upon  the  children  of  Israel,  he  exclaims: 
"  Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  shall  dwell  alone,  and  shall 
not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations."  ^  Philo,  ex- 
pounding the  passage,  adds:  "  Israel  shall  be  apart 
not  so  much  by  reason  of  the  separation  of  their 
homes  or  the  cutting-off  of  their  land,  but  by  reason 
of  the  peculiarity  of  their  customs;  for  they  shall 
not  mix  with  other  peoples,  so  that  they  may  not 
deviate  from  their  distinctive  way  of  life."  '  The 
idea  of  the  separation  and  selection  of  Israel  is  the 
constant  theme  of  the  prophets,  as  it  was  the  domi- 
nant motive  of  the  Mosaic  legislation.  The  Law 
not  only  contained  a  rigid  prohibition  against  the 
paganism  of  the  surrounding  peoples  and  against 
intermarriage  with  idolaters,  but  enacted  a  way  of 
life  affecting  the  daily  conduct  of  the  individual, 
which  had  as  its  object  the  isolation  of  the  nation  in 
order  to  fit  it  for  the  moral  mission.  It  has  been 
said  epigrammatically  by  a  modern  French  writer 
that  Judaism  is  not  a  religion  (a  force  which  binds 

15 


HELLENISM 

men  together)  but  an  abUgion  (a  force  which 
keeps  them  separate).  And  for  three  thousand 
years  it  has  resisted  the  pressure  of  other  creeds. 

The  mass  of  the  people,  indeed,  did  not  always 
remain  loyal  to  the  principles  of  their  teachert^ 
and  lawgiver.  Many  a  time  "  they  mingled  them- 
selves with  the  heathen,  and  learned  their  works  "  ; ' 
and  most  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  indulg- 
ing the  more  material  ambitions  for  territorial  ag- 
grandizement, made  alliances  with  their  heathen 
neighbours,  and  imitated  their  ways,  and  were 
faithless  to  the  ideal  of  a  chosen  people.  But  the 
prophets  never  allowed  that  ideal  to  die  or  to  be- 
come obscured.  While  they  denounced  the  idolatry 
of  the  backsliders,  and  foretold  the  destruction  of 
the  political  power  of  the  kingdom  as  a  punishment 
therefor,  they  declared  that,  after  the  people  had 
been  chastened  in  exile,  a  remnant  would  return  to 
Palestine  to  form  there  the  centre  of  a  spiritual 
supremacy  over  mankind.  "  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass,  that  he  that  is  left  in  Zion,  and  he  that 
remaineth  in  Jerusalem,  shall  be  called  holy,  even 
every  one  that  is  written  unto  life  in  Jerusalem."  * 

At  the  same  time  the  prophets  preached  this 
idea  of  a  universal  Judaism,  and  already  in  those 
days  the   "  sons   of  the   stranger "   were  joining 

16 


INTRODUCTION 

themselves  to  the  Lord.  Foreseeing  the  captivity 
of  the  nation,  they  declared  that  Israel  was  to  be 
"  a  light  to  the  nations,"  and,  taught  by  him,  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  should  come  up  to  do  worship 
upon  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  In  Jerusalem.  "  My 
house  shall  be  called  a  house  of  prayer  for  all 
peoples."  ' 

The  destruction  of  the  political  kingdom  came 
about  as  the  prophets  had  foretold,  and  Israel  and 
Judah  were  carried  away  captive  to  Assyria  and 
Babylon.  With  other  peoples  the  loss  of  political 
independence  and  their  enforced  exile  from  the  na- 
tional territory  have  regularly  marked  the  decline, 
and  often  the  death,  of  their  culture ;  but  with  the 
Jewish  people  the  reverse  happened.  Aroused  to  a 
consciousness  of  their  transgressions  by  the  national 
disaster,  and  to  a  consciousness  of  their  peculiar 
spiritual  heritage  by  closer  contact  with  the  Idola- 
tries and  superstitions  of  their  Chaldean  masters, 
the  exiles  were  more  receptive  to  the  exhortations 
of  the  teachers  who  sought  to  Inspire  them.  True, 
a  section  in  Babylon  thought  that  exile  meant  na- 
tional extinction  and  that  assimilation  was  the  only 
course  open  to  them,  and  exclaimed :  "  We  will  be 
like   the  heathen,   like  the   families   of  the  coun- 

17 


HELLENISM 

tries."  '  "  Our  bones  are  dried  up,  and  our  hope 
is  lost;  we  are  clean  cut  off."  '  And  the  majority, 
though  they  remained  loyal  to  the  religion,  pre- 
ferred their  exile-homes,  amid  the  brilliant  material 
civilization  of  Babylon,  to  the  return  to  their  ruined 
land.  But  a  sturdy  remnant,  cherishing  the  convic- 
tion of  a  national  restoration,  resisted  the  blandish- 
ments of  their  environment,  and,  when  the  oppor- 
tunity came,  returned  to  Palestine  to  re-establish 
the  cult  of  their  fathers.  So,  too,  of  the  large  body 
of  exiles,  who,  on  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  had  gone 
down  to  Egypt  with  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  a  num- 
ber remained  loyal,  or  rather  returned  to  loyalty,  to 
the  Mosaic  law,  and  preserved  their  national  way 
of  life.  The  Aramaic  papyri,  recently  found  in 
Assouan,  establish  the  existence  of  Judean  com- 
munities in  Upper  Egypt  from  the  sixth  century, 
living  their  own  life  separate  from  the  rest  of  the 
population,  worshipping  at  their  own  shrine,  speak- 
ing their  own  language,  observing  the  Passover, 
and  in  close  touch  with  the  national  centre."  Some 
amount  of  syncretism  colored  their  beliefs,  for 
they  seem  occasionally  to  have  paid  homage  to 
other  deities  besides  the  God  of  their  fathers;  but 
these  strange  ideas  probably  disappeared  when  the 

18 


INTRODUCTION 

whole  nationality  yielded  to  Ezra's  great  reforma- 
tion. 

Without  committing  oneself  to  the  dogmatic 
speculations  of  the  higher  critics  who  are  pleased 
to  assign  the  composition  of  the  Mosaic  code  to  the 
period  following  the  Restoration,  it  is  clear  from 
the  historical  narrative  of  the  books  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  that  the  religious  organization  of  the 
Jewish  people  was  much  more  thoroughly  carried 
out  after  the  return  to  Palestine  than  before  the 
captivity.  At  Babylon,  where  the  exiles  had  con- 
trived to  keep  the  religion  alive  without  the  temple 
worship  and  its  ritual,  the  foundation  had  been  laid 
for  two  new  Institutions,  the  house  of  prayer  and 
the  house  of  study,  the  Bet  ha-Keneset  and  the  Bet 
ha-Midrash.  When  the  faithful  remnant  returned, 
indeed,  they  first  set  about  the  work  of  rebuilding 
the  temple,  but  they  brought  with  them  the  habit  of 
meeting  for  prayer  and  study,  without  ritual  and 
without  sacrifices, in  local  gatherings.  Every  vil- 
lage in  Judea  where  a  Jewish  community  was  set- 
tled and  every  place  in  the  dispersion  where  Jewish 
life  flourished  had  Its  religious  meeting-place  and  its 
teacher.'  While  the  priests  and  the  Levites  were 
the  hereditary  leaders  of  the  cult  at  the  sanctuary, 
in    the    country    scribes,    distinguished    for    their 

19 


HELLENISM 

knowledge  of  the  law  and  the  traditions,  were  the 
leaders  of  the  religious  life. 

The  dedication  of  the  temple,  the  foundation  of 
the  central  authority,  known  as  the  Men  of  the 
Great  Synagogue,  the  definite  ordering  of  the  relig- 
ious life,  and  the  restatement  of  the  whole  Law  are 
alike  ascribed  to  Ezra  who  came  to  Judea  from 
Persia  in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  I  (about  450 
B.  C.  E.).  Most  famous  of  the  scribes,  who  were 
the  popular  teachers,  and  himself  a  member  of  the 
high-priestly  family,  Ezra  stands  out  as  the  supreme 
influence  In  the  foundation  of  a  Jewish  religious 
democracy.  As  It  is  said  by  the  rabbis:  "  Ezra 
was  worthy  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  Law  to  Israel, 
had  not  Moses  preceded  him."  "  By  his  work,  and 
the  work  of  the  organization  which  he  called  Into 
being,  the  religious  ideas  and  Ideals  of  the  prophets 
and  the  Mosaic  law  of  holiness  were  woven  Into  the 
life  of  the  people,  so  that  It  became  In  very  deed 
"  a  nation  one  on  the  earth,"  unique  In  Its  Intense 
religious  earnestness  and  its  high  moral  standard. 
Now  more  than  ever  the  Jews  were  a  theocracy,  a 
people  devoted  to  the  single  Idea  of  God.  Knowl- 
edge of  God  was  their  conception  of  wisdom;  serv- 
ice of  God  their  conception  of  virtue;  their  poetry 
was  the  expression  of  the  yearning  of  the  soul  for 

20 


INTRODUCTION 

God;  history  was  a  religious  drama  In  which  God 
was  the  protagonist,  judging  the  nations  with 
righteousness;  the  conception  of  God  was  their 
philosophy — they  did  not  require  any  other:  their 
faith  In  God  and  their  religion  were  strong  enough 
to  satisfy  their  desire  for  knowledge.  They  felt 
the  more  deeply  for  the  very  limitation  of  their 
outlook. 

The  Judaism  of  the  Mosaic  books,  as  organized 
by  Ezra,  was  the  first  example  In  the  history  of  hu- 
manity of  a  religion  which  was  independent  of  a 
cult,  and  which  was  the  basis  of  both  national  and 
personal  morality.  The  Torah  became  a  law  of  life 
to  the  Individual,  and  the  inheritance  of  the  con- 
gregation of  Jacob  was  handed  down  and  amplified 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  almost  the 
whole  intellectual  activity  was  centered  upon  It. 
The  scribes  determined  in  its  main  lines  the  selec- 
tion of  the  holy  writings  which  formed  the  nation's 
special  possession.  By  the  constant  teaching  and 
Interpretation  of  these  writings  in  the  houses  of 
study  the  Jews  became,  in  a  real  sense,  "  the  People 
of  the  Book."  But  the  scribes  were  not  merely  the 
guardians  of  the  tradition,  they  were  active  teachers 
who  continually  sought  new  themes  to  inspire  the 

21 


HELLENISM 

people  with  love  for  their  faith  and  for  the  Law. 
As  Ben  SIra  writes  at  a  rather  later  period : 

He  that  giveth  his  mind  to  the  Law  of  the  Most  High, 

And  is  occupied  in  the  meditation  thereof, 

Will   seek  out  the  wisdom  of  the   ancients  and  be  occupied  in 

prophecies; 
He  will  keep  the  sayings  of  the  renowned  men, 
And  where  subtil  parables  are,  he  will  be  there  also." 

The  Wisdom  of  Ben  Sira  itself,  though  dating 
from  the  Hellenistic  period,  is  typical  of  the  literary 
activity  of  the  scribes.  The  Greek  translator  rec- 
ommends it  in  the  prologue  because  it  contained 
wise  sayings,  dark  sentences  and  parables,  and  cer- 
tain particular  ancient  godly  stories  of  men  that 
pleased  God.  Describing  the  origin  of  the  book,  he 
relates  how  his  grandfather,  Jesus  ben  Sira,  "  when 
he  had  much  given  himself  to  the  reading  of  the 
Law  and  the  Prophets  and  other  books  of  our 
fathers,  and  had  gotten  therein  good  judgment,  was 
drawn  on  also  himself  to  write  something  pertaining 
to  learning  and  wisdom,  to  the  intent  that  those 
who  are  desirous  to  learn  and  are  addicted  to  these 
things  might  profit  much  more  in  living  according 
to  the  Law." 

Among  the  Jews,  as  among  no  other  people,  did 
the  thought  of  its  greatest  teachers  become  a  living 

22 


INTRODUCTION 

Influence  upon  the  mass.  The  words  attributed  to 
the  Men  of  the  Great  Synagogue  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Sayings  of  the  Fathers:  "  Make  a  fence 
around  the  Torah,  and  raise  up  many  disciples," 
illustrate  the  spirit  which  was  working  during  the 
two  centuries  of  Persian  rule.  The  observance  and 
study  of  the  Law  were  the  dominant  interests.  The 
outward  conditions  of  Palestine  conduced  to  the 
steady  strengthening  of  the  religious  consciousness. 
For  two  hundred  years  the  country  was  free  alike 
from  political  complications  and  from  religious  in- 
tolerance. Simultaneously  with  the  preaching  of 
the  great  prophets  of  Israel,  Zarathustra  had  de- 
nounced the  paganism  of  the  Persians,  and  incul- 
cated the  principles  of  a  higher  religious  belief. 
Hence  the  Persians  had  an  inherent  sympathy  with 
Jewish  monotheism,  and  from  the  time  of  Cyrus  till 
the  fall  of  the  empire  they  made  no  attempt  to  in- 
terfere with  the  religious  observances  and  beliefs 
of  their  Jewish  subjects 

The  Jews  of  Babylon  and  Egypt  were  under  the 
same  tolerant  sway  as  those  in  Palestine.  In  the 
book  of  Esther,  it  is  true,  we  read  of  attempted  per- 
secution in  Persia  itself,  based  on  the  charge  that  the 
people  scattered  through  the  dominions  of  Ahas- 
uerus   had   ''  laws   diverse    from   those   of   every 

23 


HELLENISM 

people;  neither  keep  they  the  king's  laws"  ;  but 
the  issue  shows  that  the  attempt  was  not  successful. 
It  was  the  outcome  of  a  personal  political  intrigue 
and  not  of  permanent  popular  feeling.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Jews  were  under  no  temptation  to 
assimilate  the  ideas  and  manners  of  the  Persians, 
who  were  mainly  concentrated  in  the  eastern  parts 
of  the  empire,  and  who  did  not  develop  a  dominant 
intellectual  culture.  The  other  subjects  of  the 
Persian  dominions  were  a  mixed  multitude,  lacking 
a  strong  national  feeling;  but  the  Jews  retained 
and  deepened  their  individuality,  regarding  their 
religious  culture  as  the  planks  and  timbers  of  which 
the  nation  was  constructed.  While  the  tolerant 
sway  of  the  Persian  empire  preserved  Judea  from 
exterior  disturbance,  the  circumstances  of  the  people 
continued  to  Isolate  them  from  the  influence  of  ex- 
ternal culture.  The  anti-Semites  of  the  first 
century  used  to  make  It  a  reproach  to  the  Jews  that 
the  Greek  writers  made  no  mention  of  them,  which 
proved  that  they  were  a  mushroom  people.  Jose- 
phus,  in  refuting  the  attack,  explains  the  absence  of 
communication  with  Hellas,  in  the  period  that  pre- 
ceded Alexander's  conquests,  by  the  self-contained 
character  of  the  land.  *'  As  for  ourselves,  there- 
fore, we  neither  inhabit  a  maritime  country,  nor  do 

24 


INTRODUCTION 

we  delight  In  commerce,  nor  In  such  communication 
with  other  men  as  arises  from  It;  but  the  places  we 
dwell  In  are  remote  from  the  sea,  and  having  a 
fruitful  country  for  our  habitation,  we  devote  our- 
selves to  Its  cultivation.  Our  principal  care  Is  this, 
to  educate  our  children  well,  and  we  think  It  to  be 
the  most  necessary  business  of  our  whole  life  to  ob- 
serve the  laws  that  have  been  given  us,  and  to  keep 
those  rules  of  piety  which  have  been  handed  down 
to  us.  Since,  therefore,  we  have  had  a  peculiar  way 
of  living,  we  had  no  occasion  In  ancient  times  for 
mixing  with  the  Greeks,  as  they  had  for  mixing  with 
the  Egyptians  by  their  intercourse  of  exporting  and 
importing  commodities;  or  as  they  mixed  with  the 
Phoenicians  who  lived  on  the  sea-coast,  by  reason 
of  their  desire  for  gain  In  commerce."  " 

Being  essentially  engaged  in  agriculture  and  de- 
voted to  their  own  traditions,  the  Jewish  people  in 
Palestine  were  not  affected  In  the  fifth  and  fourth 
centuries  by  the  Hellenic  civilization  which,  during 
that  period,  was  spreading  over  the  maritime 
provinces  of  Asia  Minor.  A  few  stray  references 
to  the  Jewish  practice  of  circumcision  occur  in 
Herodotus "  and  Aristophanes."  The  Bible,  on 
the  other  hand,  contains  references  to  Javan  (the 
Hebrew  for  Ionia)  in  Ezeklel  (27.  13)  where  it  is 

25 


HELLENISM 

mentioned  as  a  mart  of  the  Phoenicians,  and  in 
Isaiah  {66.  19)  where  the  prophet  speaks  of 
"  Tubal  and  Javan,  and  the  isles  afar  off  that  have 
not  heard  of  the  fame  of  God  "  ;  and  in  Zechariah 
(9.  13)  who  speaks  of  God  stirring  up  the  sons  of 
Zion  against  the  sons  of  Javan.  Some  communica- 
tion, then,  between  Hellas  and  Palestine  existed 
even  in  biblical  times.  As  early  as  Joel,"  the  mer- 
chants of  Tyre  and  Sidon  are  denounced  for  having 
sold  the  children  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem  unto  the 
Greeks.  Jewish  slaves  must  have  been  brought  to 
Greece,  or  at  least  to  the  greater  Greece  established 
on  the  Asiatic  coast,  in  the  heyday  of  Greek  life. 

Nor  is  it  impossible  that  the  monotheistic  utter- 
ances of  the  Ionian  philosophers  Xenophanes  and 
Heraclitus  in  the  fifth  century  B.  C.  E.  were  in  some 
indirect  fashion  influenced  by  reports  of  the  Jewish 
teaching  about  God.  But  if  a  few  philosophers 
picked  up  some  Jewish  lore,  there  was  no  general 
intercourse  or  exchange  of  culture  which  had  any 
permanent  effect  on  thought.  As  Josephus  again 
points  out  in  his  refutations  of  Apion,  who  charged 
the  Jews  with  aloofness,  the  Greek  city-states  in 
their  prime  were  equally  aloof,  and  their  culture 
was  exclusively  national.  Plato  ordained  for  his 
ideal  Republic  that  it  should  not  admit  foreigners 

26 


INTRODUCTION 

to  intermix  with  Its  population,  but  should  keep 
Itself  pure  and  consist  only  of  such  as  persevered  In 
their  own  laws.  And  this  was  the  standpoint  of  the 
Hellenes  of  the  classical  age  who  regarded  all  for- 
eigners as  "  barbarians."  A  modern  writer,  con- 
trasting the  work  of  Israel  and  Hellas,  has  said: 
"  Both  peoples  felt  themselves  a  peculiar  people 
marked  off  from  the  surrounding  races  by  distinc- 
tions more  Ineffaceable  than  those  of  blood — by  its 
possession  of  intellectual  or  religious  truths  which 
determined  the  bent  and  meaning  of  history.  For 
centuries  their  work  went  forward  at  the  same  time, 
but  in  disparate  spheres,  each  nation  unconscious  of 
the  other's  existence."  "  Between  Greeks  and  Bar- 
barians, between  Israel  and  the  heathen,  there  could 
be  no  Intimacy,  no  union.  Yet  this  very  spirit  of 
excluslveness  was  one  of  the  conditions  which  en- 
abled each  to  nurture  and  bring  to  maturity  the 
life-giving  germ  which  It  bore  within  it.  "  While 
the  Jews  had  developed  their  sublime  Idea  of  God, 
the  Greeks  were  moved  by  an  impulse  for  a  many- 
sided  culture.  They  were  achieving  In  their  little 
city-states,  each  with  its  Intense  national  life,  the 
art,  the  literature,  the  science,  and  the  philosophy 
which  have  ever  since  been  the  inspiration  of  the 
civilized  world." 

27 


HELLENISM 

It  was  not  until  the  seml-Hellenized  Macedonian 
prince  Philip  had  destroyed  the  independence  of 
these  city-states,  and  his  son  Alexander,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  to  the  sovereignty  of  Hellas,  had  con- 
quered the  Persian  empire,  that  the  period  of  na- 
tional creation  and  national  exclusiveness  gave  way 
to  a  period  of  international  communication  and 
cosmopolitan  culture.  Palestine  fell  into  Alexan- 
der's possession  in  332  B.  C.  E.,  Egypt  a  year  later; 
and  from  that  time  the  position  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple was  changed.  The  aim  as  well  as  the  effect  of 
Alexander's  conquests  was  to  link  up  the  East  and 
the  West  not  only  politically,  but  also  intellectually. 
National  feeling  hardly  existed  among  the  eastern 
peoples,  save  the  Persians  and  the  Jews :  it  was  de- 
caying among  the  Greeks.  Alexander  sought  to 
bring  about  a  great  fusion  of  ideas  in  a  cosmopolitan 
empire,  which,  by  a  combination  of  racial  excel- 
lences and  national  cultures  in  some  larger  expres- 
sion of  political  life  than  the  Greek  city-state,  should 
advance  the  work  of  humanity  and  give  expansion 
to  the  Hellenic  spirit.  Hellenism  was  to  be  domi- 
nant, but  it  was  to  be  brought  into  contact  with 
Oriental  systems.  The  fusion  of  cultures  was  pre- 
pared by  the  physical  intermingling  of  the  various 
elements  who  were  to  build  up  together  the  new 

28 


INTRODUCTION 

civilization.  To  this  end  the  conqueror  established 
cities  and  colonies  at  the  most  vital  points  of  his 
empire,  and  planted  in  them  groups  of  his  diverse 
subjects  and,  among  others,  of  the  Jews. 

The  Talmud "  and  Josephus  "  contain  several 
stories  of  the  special  regard  which  Alexander  con- 
ceived for  the  Jewish  people,  but  one  and  all  are 
probably  apocryphal.  Nevertheless,  it  is  not  un- 
likely that  the  great  conqueror  realized  the  value 
for  his  imperial  edifice  of  the  one  subject  people  in 
the  Persian  empire  who  had  preserved  in  its  purity 
a  national  culture;  or  that  the  pupil  of  Aristotle, 
who  possessed  a  desire  for  knowledge  equal 
to  his  master's,  had  some  vague  notion  of  the 
peculiar  philosophic  character  of  the  Jewish  belief. 
Plutarch  records  as  one  of  Alexander's  maxims  that 
God  was  the  father  of  all  men,  and  especially  of  all 
the  best  men;  and  he  held  his  mission  to  be  the 
pacification  of  the  whole  world.  If  Josephus 
may  be  believed,  Aristotle  had  been  brought  into 
touch  with  a  Jew,  and  had  acquired  from  him 
some  knowledge  of  his  religion.  Clearchus,  one 
of  his  disciples,  relates  a  conversation  which  the 
master  had  with  a  man  who  was  a  Jew  by 
birth,  and  came  from  Coele-Syria  (the  Greek  name 
for  Palestine).  ''  These  Jews,"  he  continues,  re- 
3  29 


HELLENISM 

porting  Aristotle,  "  are  sprung  from  the  Indian 
philosophers :  they  are  named  by  the  Indians  Kakavoi 
and  by  the  Syrians  'lovBaiot  ;  and  they  took  their 
name  from  the  country  which  they  inhabit,  Judea : 
but  the  name  of  their  city  is  hard  to  pronounce, 
for  they  call  it  Hierousalem.  Now  this  man  being 
hospitably  treated  by  the  people,  and  having  come 
down  from  the  upper  country  to  the  places  on  the 
coast,  became  Hellenized,  not  only  in  language  but 
also  in  mind;  so  that  when  we  were  in  Asia  in  the 
places  where  he  resided,  he  conversed  with  us  and 
the  other  philosophers  and  made  a  trial  of  our 
skill.  And  as  he  had  much  converse  with  learned 
men,  he  rather  communicated  the  wisdom  he  him- 
self possessed." 

Aristotle,  In  the  cited  passage,  goes  on  to  tell  of 
the  remarkable  temperance  of  the  Jew  In  his  diet 
and  manner  of  life.  Unfortunately,  the  book  of 
Clearchus  has  not  been  preserved,  and  we  have  no 
other  record  of  Aristotle's  reflections  on  the  Jewish 
people."  But  from  this  fragment  and  from  that 
of  another  early  Peripatetic  philosopher,  Theo- 
phrastus,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  Jews  were  re- 
garded in  the  school  as  a  singular  philosophical 
people  worthy  of  study.  The  Ideas  of  the  Peripa- 
tetics were  to  some  extent  the  ideas  of  Alexander; 

30 


INTRODUCTION 

and  therefore  the  favorable  treatment  which  he 
showed  a  people,  materially  of  little  account,  may 
be  partly  due  to  the  respect  for  their  moral  and  cul- 
tural individuality.  Yet,  apart  from  these  consider- 
ations, the  Jews,  on  political  and  economic  grounds, 
were  a  valuable  element  in  his  civilizing  enterprise. 
They  were  already  dispersed ;  settlements  of  them 
were  to  be  found  in  Mesopotamia,  Persia,  Egypt, 
Syria,  and  the  Caucasian  provinces,  and  the  Greek 
conqueror  was  only  continuing  the  policy  of  the 
Persian  kings  when  he  carried  a  number  of  them 
to  the  city  at  the  Delta  of  the  Nile  which  he  designed 
and  named  after  himself. 

Be  the  motives  what  they  may,  the  effect  of  Alex- 
ander's action  in  transplanting  the  Jews  from 
Palestine  to  different  points  of  the  empire  was  to 
mark  a  new  stage  in  the  extent  of  the  Jewish  dis- 
persion and  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion. His  action  was  followed  by  his  successors, 
who  split  up  his  empire,  but  preserved  his  cosmo- 
politan outlook.  The  Jewish  colonists  carried  with 
them  their  religious  ordering  of  life  and  their  or- 
ganization around  the  place  of  assembly  and  study, 
henceforth  known  by  the  Greek  name  of  synagogue 
(i.  e.,  assemblage).  Recently  archaeologists  have 
recovered   a  monumental   record  of  the   founda- 

31 


HELLENISM 

tion  of  a  synagogue  at  Alexandria  in  308  B.  C.  E., 
and  similar  Inscriptions  from  the  following  century 
are  frequent.  Recognized  as  a  separate  national- 
ity, the  Jews  were  allotted  a  special  quarter  in  the 
Hellenistic  cities,  not  by  way  of  restriction,  but  as  a 
privilege;  and  they  were  allowed  to  exercise  their 
own  autonomous  jurisdiction,  so  that  their  peculiar 
manner  of  life  might  not  be  infringed.''  Alexan- 
der's aim  was  not  to  destroy  the  Individual  charac- 
teristics of  his  diverse  subjects,  or  to  enforce  one 
uniform  culture  upon  them  all,  but  to  bring  together 
different  peoples  in  order  that  from  the  exchange 
of  their  ideas  some  fruitful  union  should  arise. 

The  first  Ptolemy  (Lagus),  who  secured  Egypt 
and  Palestine  in  the  scramble  for  empire  which  fol- 
lowed Alexander's  death.  Increased  the  numbers  of 
the  Jewish  colony  at  Alexandria,  and  distributed 
thirty  thousand  soldiers  from  Judea  in  Egyptian 
garrisons.^  The  dynasty  which  he  founded,  and 
which  for  over  a  century  ruled  over  the  territory  he 
had  gained,  maintained,  with  hardly  an  Inter- 
ruption, these  principles  of  tolerance,  and  thereby 
secured  the  loyalty  of  the  Jewish  population.  If 
we  are  to  believe  the  narrative  of  the  third  book 
of  the  Maccabees,  towards  the  end  of  the  third 
century  B.   C.  E.  occurred  a  persecution  of  the 

32 


INTRODUCTION 

Egyptian  Jews;  but,  like  the  attack  of  Haman, 
the  movement  was  based  on  temporary  political 
animosity,  and  did  not  result  in  any  permanent 
dislike.  Again,  Seleucus  I,  who  at  the  beginning 
of  the  third  century  carved  out  for  himself  a 
Syrian  empire  from  the  eastern  portion  of  Alex- 
ander's conquests,  settled  a  number  of  Jews  in  his 
foundation  of  Antioch  and  other  less  celebrated 
colonies.  He  accorded  them  civic  rights  as  well  as 
autonomy  for  their  own  concerns,  and  made  no  at- 
tempt to  interfere  with  their  religious  liberty." 
Even  if,  as  several  scholars  hold,  the  royal  decrees, 
quoted  by  Josephus,  should  not  be  authentic,  it  is 
clear  that  during  the  third  century  the  Jewish  settle- 
ments in  Egypt  and  Syria  w^ere  steadily  growing  in 
importance,  and  that  their  privileges  were  main- 
tained throughout  the  shifting  domination  of  their 
warring  rulers. 

The  Jews  in  that  period  as  to-day  were  dispersed 
over  the  civilized  world.  Strabo,  the  famous 
geographer,  who  just  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  wrote  a  large  historical  work,  says  in 
a  fragment  about  them:  "  They  have  penetrated 
already  into  every  state,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  find 
a  single  place  in  the  world  in  which  their  tribe  has 
not  been  received  and  become  dominant."  "    Strabo 

33 


HELLENISM 

is  a  careful  and  accurate  writer,  and  as  he  was  a 
considerable  traveller,  he  could  speak  from  per- 
sonal knowledge.  There  is  the  less  reason  to  doubt 
his  testimony  about  the  extent  of  the  Jewish  dis- 
persion, because  it  is  supported  not  only  by  the  Jew- 
ish authorities,  Philo  and  Josephus,  who  doubtless 
are  prone  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  their 
people,  but  also  by  documentary  evidence  which 
cannot  lie — the  inscriptions  and  epitaphs  of  the 
age. 

The  dispersion  had  begun  seven  centuries  earlier, 
when  the  people  of  Israel  were  carried  off  by  the 
king  of  Assyria  to  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates;  and  it  went  on  continuously  and  increas- 
ingly, partly  by  voluntary  and  partly  by  forced 
migrations,  whilst  the  numbers  of  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation in  the  Greek  cities  were  largely  augmented 
by  the  adhesion  of  proselytes.  The  ten  tribes  of 
Israel  never  returned  to  their  national  land,"*  but, 
remaining  beyond  the  Euphrates,  may  have  become 
the  nucleus  of  a  later  Jewish  settlement  in  that  re- 
gion. Moreover,  only  a  small  section  of  the  Judeans 
returned  with  Zerubbabel  after  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity to  Palestine,  when  Cyrus  granted  the  restora- 
tion of  the  nation  and  the  temple,  and  many  more 
remained  in  the  Persian  realm.     The  chief  Jewish 

34  ■ 


INTRODUCTION 

centres  In  the  far  East  were  Babylon,  Seleucia, 
NIsIbIs,  and  Nehardea ;  but  throughout  the  country 
they  were  powerful,  and  at  times  they  made  them- 
selves independent  of  the  civil  power.  A  Baby- 
lonian Jew  in  the  first  century  B.  C.  E.  founded  a 
little  kingdom;  and  some  time  later  two  Jews  of 
Nehardea,  named  Asineus  and  Anileus,  gathered 
around  them  a  band  of  daring  spirits,  and  estab- 
lished a  robber-principality  which  defied  the  Par- 
thian and  the  Roman  governments.''  About  the 
same  period  the  rulers  of  Adiabene,  a  kingdom  east 
of  the  Tigris,  and  some  of  their  subjects  were  con- 
verted to  Judaism,  and  threw  in  their  lot  with  the 
Jewish  nation  In  their  struggle  for  freedom.  In  an 
eastern  direction,  then,  the  Jewish  dispersion  ex- 
tended as  far  as  and  beyond  the  limits  of  Greek 
and  Roman  expansion,  and  helped  to  fix  the 
boundaries  of  Hellenistic  culture  and  Roman  rule. 
The  Jewish  population  formed  a  kind  of  buffer-state 
between  the  Graeco-Roman  world  and  the  Bar- 
barians, a  buffer-state  in  which  Hellenistic  culture 
had  a  place,  but  a  subordinate  place. 

The  first  impulse  of  the  Jewish  diaspora  which 
was  set  up  by  the  Babylonian  captivity  was  toward 
the  East,  the  second,  which  was  stimulated  by  Alex- 
ander's conquests,  was  towards  Egypt  and  Syria. 

35 


HELLENISM 

Their  part  in  the  foundation  of  Alexandria  has 
already  been  noted;  and  under  the  almost  unbroken 
favor  of  the  ruling  dynasty,  their  colony  continu- 
ally increased.  Philo  estimates  that  in  his  own 
day,  i.  e.,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Christian 
era,  there  were  one  million  Jews  in  Egypt,  of  whom 
a  quarter  part  were  at  Alexandria.'"  Two  of  the 
five  districts  into  which  the  city  was  divided  were 
entirely  peopled  by  them.  They  largely  controlled 
the  important  corn  trade  of  the  Nile,  and  the  ala- 
barch,  whose  function  It  was  to  regulate  the  com- 
merce of  the  Delta,  was  frequently  chosen  from 
their  community.  Alexandria  was  the  centre  of  the 
Jewish  community  in  Egypt  and  the  second  Jewish 
city  in  the  world;  but  there  were  considerable  settle- 
ments stretching  up  the  Nile  as  far  as  modern 
Abyssinia.  A  special  Jewish  district  was  estab- 
lished in  the  Delta  around  Leontopolis,  where,  at 
the  time  of  the  Seleucid  persecution,  the  exiled 
priest  Onias  obtained  permission  to  erect  a  temple  to 
be  a  new  centre  of  Jewish  worship.  The  temple, 
which  had  Its  special  ritual,  outlived  the  sanctuary 
at  Jerusalem  by  three  years,  but  it  never  obtained  a 
position  to  rival  the  authority  of  the  central  shrine. 
The  account  in  the  Talmud  of  its  foundation,  ac- 
cording to  which  one  Rabbi  held  that  Onias  built  it 

36 


INTRODUCTION 

for  the  glory  of  God,  while  another  maintained 
that  It  was  for  the  propagation  of  heresy,  indicates 
that  the  sages  regarded  it  with  dubious  respect."" 

Inscriptions  have  revealed  the  existence  of  a  Jew- 
ish community  at  Arthritis  '"  and  the  dedication  of  a 
synagogue  *'  to  the  most  high  God,"  which  points 
to  a  congregation  which  was  sympathetic  enough 
with  Hellenistic  ideas  to  admit  subordinate  deities. 
The  Fayyum  papyri  likewise  show  records  of 
a  synagogue  C^a/S/SaTiov)  of  the  second  century 
B.  C.  E." 

Westwards  the  Jewish  settlements  stretched 
along  the  African  coast.  Cyrene,  the  territory 
neighboring  to  Egypt  which  had  been  semi- 
Hellenized  since  the  sixth  century,  had  a  Jewish 
colony  that  enjoyed  equal  rights  with  the  Greeks 
from  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Lagus.  Strabo  divides 
the  population  of  the  district  Into  four  parts :  Citi- 
zens (f.  e.,  presumably,  persons  with  the  full  Greek 
rights),  peasants,  metics  (resident  aliens),  and 
Jews.""  Earlier  than  the  colony  at  Cyrene,  earlier 
perhaps  than  the  establishment  of  any  other  colony, 
the  Jews  must  have  had  a  settlement  in  the 
Phoenican  city  of  Carthage.  Perhaps  some  were 
taken  there  as  slaves  by  the  merchants  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  for  the  Septuagint  translates  Tarshish  in  the 

37 


HELLENISM 

book  of  Isaiah'"  by  the  word  Kapx'n8(^v  (Car- 
thage), and  near  Carthage,  at  the  coast  town  of 
Borlcum,  a  temple  was  standing  in  the  reign  of 
Justinian,  which  was  said  to  have  been  founded  by 
King  Solomon.  This  indicates  the  tradition  of 
early  Jewish  settlement  in  the  region ;  and  recently  a 
vast  Jewish  necropolis  has  been  found  near  the  site 
of  the  old  city. 

In  Syria  the  only  Jewish  colony  of  which  the 
foundation  is  specially  marked  is  that  of  Antioch." 
But  the  early  Seleucid  emperors,  in  furtherance  of 
the  previous  policy,  moved  the  Jews  from  the  plains 
of  Mesopotamia,  and  encouraged  their  settlement 
in  all  parts  of  their  realm.  They  flourished  es- 
pecially at  the  centres  of  the  empire :  at  Antioch,  its 
capital,  Apamea,  its  military  headquarters,  and 
Tarsus,  its  chief  seat  of  culture.''  Further  they 
were  spread  over  Asia  Minor  and  the  islands  off  the 
coast.  The  letters  which,  according  to  the  author 
of  the  first  book  of  Maccabees,  the  Roman  consul 
wrote,  to  the  subject-allies  and  friends  of  Rome 
to  seal  the  alliance  which  the  Senate  had  made  with 
Simon  the  Maccabee,  were  sent  "  to  Demetrius  (of 
Syria),  to  Attalus  (of  Pergamus)  and  to  Ariara- 
thes  (of  Cappadocia)  and  to  Arsaces  (of  Parthia), 
and  unto  all  the  countries,  and  to  Lampsacus  (?) 

38 


INTRODUCTION 


and  to  the  Spartans  and  unto  Delos  and  unto  Myn- 
dos  and  unto  Sicyon  and  unto  Caria  and  unto  Samos 
and  unto  Pamphylla,  and  unto  Lycia  and  unto  Hall- 
carnassus  and  unto  Rhodes  and  unto  Phaselis  and 
unto  Cos  and  unto  Side,  and  Gortyna  and  Cnidus 
and  Cyprus  and  Cyrene."  '* 

The  Roman  document  (which,  If  genuine,  dates 
from  139  B.  C.  E.),  though  It  does  not  conclusively 
point  to  the  existence  of  Jewish  communities  In  all 
these  territories,  at  least  argues  that  they  were 
known  along  the  coast  of  Asia  at  the  time,  and  also 
in  the  Greek  islands.  The  journeys  of  the  first 
Christian  apostles  are  evidence  that  two  centuries 
later  synagogues  did  In  fact  exist  in  these  places. 
Some  congregations  may  have  originated  with  the 
Hebrew  slaves  who  were  sold  in  distant  countries 
from  the  time  of  the  captivity,  but  a  voluntary 
stream  of  expansion  was  started  by  the  great  na- 
tional and  religious  revival  which  the  Maccabean 
victories  Initiated.  The  Jews,  in  fact,  took  the 
place  In  the  Hellenistic  and  Graeco-Roman  world, 
which  the  Phoenicians  had  occupied  in  the  Myce- 
naean and  Hellenic  ages,  as  an  international  people, 
with  these  differences,  that  they  established  more 
permanent  settlements,  adopted  more  thoroughly 
the  surrounding  culture,  and  at  the  same  time  ex- 

39 


HELLENISM 

erted  a  more  profound  Influence  upon  their  en- 
vironment. From  the  Islands  and  from  Alexan- 
dria they  made  their  way  to  the  mainland  of  Greece, 
and  the  journeys  of  the  apostle  Paul  prove  the  ex- 
tent of  their  expansion  by  the  first  century  In  this 
direction,  as  well  as  along  the  Mediterranean 
shores.  He  visited  congregations  at  Thessalonica, 
Beroea,  PhlllppI,  Corinth,  Athens,  and  as  far  west 
as  Illyrlcum.  Jerome,  some  centuries  later^  speaks 
of  the  Jewish  colonies  as  forming  an  uninterrupted 
chain  from  Mauretania  (Morocco)  to  the  Indies. 
Scattered  though  they  were  over  the  whole  of  the 
Hellenistic  world  and  beyond,  the  Jewish  com- 
munities possessed  a  solidarity  lacking  to  every 
other  people.  Their  settlements  occupied  a  posi- 
tion which  may  be  contrasted  with  that  of  the  old 
Greek  colonies  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea.  These  had  been  centres  of  intellectual^ 
civilization,  whereas  the  Jewish  colonies  were  cen- 
tres of  distinctive  religious  and  moral  life.  The 
bond  of  unity  with  the  motherland  among  the 
Greeks  had  been  mainly  sentimental,  and  often  dis- 
appeared with  conflicting  interests;  but  the  Jews  of 
the  diaspora  were  linked  together  with  the  centre 
of  the  nation  and  the  religion  by  the  existence  of  a 
supreme  legislative  body,  the  Jerusalem  Sanhedrin, 

40 


INTRODUCTION 

and  a  supreme  sanctuary,  the  Jerusalem  temple. 
The  institution  of  the  yearly  money-offering  for 
the  temple  worship  and  the  three  yearly  pilgrim- 
ages to  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of  the  festivals 
not  only  symbolized,  but  consolidated  the  unity 
of  the  people.  According  to  Josephus,  no  less 
than  2,700,000  males  gathered  together  in  the 
city  at  the  time  of  these  great  pilgrimages,"  of 
whom  by  far  the  larger  proportion  came  from 
the  Jewish  colonies.  And  in  view  of  these  Immense 
gatherings  of  devotees,  one  can  understand  the 
boast  of  Phllo  when  he  calls  Jerusalem  the  capital 
"  not  of  one  nation  but  all  nations,"  ''  At  the  same 
time  the  cohesion  of  the  Jews  in  each  city  was 
maintained  by  the  institution  of  the  synagogue, 
and  in  more  important  centres  by  the  large 
measure  of  local  self-government  which  was  se- 
cured to  them.  The  synagogues  were  the  meeting- 
places  of  Jews  and  those  sympathetic  to  their 
Ideas,  not  merely  for  prayer  and  learning  but 
for  general  purposes.  They  were  the  centres  of 
Jewish  life  and  culture  in  the  broad  sense.  Their 
organization  has  many  points  of  resemblance  with 
that  of  the  Greek  towns,  suggesting  that  they  were 
in  themselves  little  townships.  As  Renan  says, 
"  The  Jews  had  a  patriotism  aiming  not  at  the 

41 


HELLENISM 

formation  of  great  compact  states,  but  of  little  au- 
tonomous communities  in  the  bosom  of  other 
states."  The  exact  form  of  the  constitution  of  their 
communities  is  uncertain;  it  has  to  be  reconstructed 
from  a  number  of  inscriptions,  but  it  appears  to 
have  been  on  the  following  lines.  An  indefinite 
number  of  archons  (rulers)  regulated  the  affairs 
of  the  synagogue  with  or  without  a  deliberative 
council.  Associated,  and  occasionally  identical, 
with  the  archons  were  an  indefinite  number  of  re- 
ligious heads,  entitled  archisynagogi,  whose  duty, 
it  is  conjectured,  was  to  preach  on  the  sabbath  and 
give  instruction  in  Jewish  law.  The  title  without 
the  duties  was  given  to  those  who  had  done  good 
service  for  the  congregation,  whether  born  Jews  or 
proselytes.  Benefactors  of  the  community  might 
also  receive  the  right  of  a  special  seat  ( TrpoeSpia )  ; 
and  sometimes  a  golden  crown,  in  imitation  of  the, 
habits  of  Greek  cities,  was  presented  to  them. 

The  Jews  then  recognized  themselves,  and  were 
recognized  by  others,  as  a  separate  society;  and 
where  they  were  numerous,  or  their  settlements  were 
of  old  standing,  they  occasionally  formed  an 
autonomous  "  ethnos,"  sometimes  living  in  a  sepa- 
rate quarter."  The  rights  of  such  an  ethnic  com- 
munity varied,  but  in  all  cases  its  officers  possessed 

42 


INTRODUCTION 


a  power  of  taxation  for  the  purpose  of  the  contri- 
bution to  the  temple  and  the  local  needs,  and  a  civil 
and  petty  criminal  jurisdiction  over  disputes  be- 
tween Jews  and  on  matters  of  Jewish  law.""    The 
Alexandrian   community  had  powers   of  taxation 
entirely  independent  of  those  of  the  Greek  city.  But 
this  position  was  exceptional.     It  had  also  its  own 
Sanhedrin  or  Bet  Din,  which  administered  the  Mo- 
saic law.    The  organization  of  archons  and  council 
was  frequently  applied  to  the  larger  ethnic  groups 
as  well  as  to  the  single  synagogues.     Thus,  in  the 
time  of  Phllo  the  affairs  of  the  Alexandrian  com- 
munity were  directed  by  a  number  of  archons  and 
a  council,  probably  of  seventy-one  members  (which 
was  the  number  of  the  supreme  council  of  the  nation 
at  Jerusalem).     Previously  one  supreme  genearch 
or  ethnarch  had  governed  the  Jews,  and  "  like  the 
governor  of  an  independent  city  enforced  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  national  duties  and  the  observance  of 
the  laws."  ""    Similarly  at  Antioch  a  single  archon, 
and  at  Damascus  a  single  ethnarch,  was  responsible 
for  the  good  order  of  the  community.*"     And  at 
Cyrene,  says  Strabo,  the  Jews  had  their  own  gov- 
ernor as  if  an  independent  polity. 

In  certain  favored  towns,  where  their  settlements 
were  of  ancient  standing,  the  Jews  had  the  full  po- 

43 


HELLENISM 

lltical  rights  of  the  city  as  well  as  their  own  autono- 
mous rights.  They  formed  a  separate  tribe  or 
Phyle,  and  therefore  were  relieved  from  taking  a 
part  In  the  religious  cults  which  were  an  important 
feature  of  Hellenistic  municipal  life.  Elsewhere 
they  had  special  rights  as  a  separate  community,  but 
were  not  citizens  of  the  city  or  the  empire  (as  a 
body).  Whether  full  citizens  or  not,  they  pre- 
served, by  their  organization  into  synagogues  and 
by  the  organization  of  their  several  synagogues 
again  within  a  town,  a  distinct  ^nd  separate  na- 
tional-religious existence  with  a  strong  sense  of  cor- 
porate life.  A  powerful  religious  consciousness 
flourished  among  their  groups,  and  gave  them  a 
solid  strength  which  was  proof  against  envy  and 
hatred,  seduction  and  force.  Jewish  separatism 
was  the  source  of  the  dislike  which  the  natives,  and 
especially  the  Greeks,  felt  toward  them;  but  it  was 
the  foundation  of  their  strength;  it  was  not  so  much 
a  barrier  against  the  admission  of  Gentiles  to  their 
community,  as  a  wall  of  protection  against  the  in- 
troduction of  pagan  ideas  into  their  life.  They 
contrived  to  maintain  national  life  in  an  interna- 
tional diaspora.  When  other  peoples  were  losing 
their  individual  stamp  through  a  characterless 
amalgamation  of  cultures,  they  preserved  intact  the 

44 


INTRODUCTION 

distinctive  moral  and  social  outlook  of  Judaism; 
and  when  the  city-state  was  ceasing  to  foster  any 
high  ideal  of  life,  they  established  a  new  form  of 
association  which  provided  a  powerful  motive  of 
conduct  for  thousands  who  had  not  been  born  in 
their  nation.  The  synagogal  organization  of  the 
diaspora  not  only  gave  Judaism  the  necessary  mould 
for  resistance  against  foreign  ideas,  but  fitted  it  to 
become  a  centre  of  universal  idealism  amid  the  de- 
nationalized mass  of  humanity. 

While,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Jews  were  dispersed 
by  their  settlements  among  the  Hellenistic  peoples, 
it  was  part  of  the  plan  of  Alexander,  which  was 
faithfully  maintained  by  his  successors,  to  introduce 
the  Greek  people  into  all  parts  of  the  empire. 
Lower  Syria,  especially,  as  one  of  the  strategic  cen- 
tres, received  a  large  Hellenic  population.  Instead 
of  uprooting  the  population  of  the  subject  countries, 
as  Eastern  conquerors  had  done,  the  Greeks  took 
their  own  country  to  them.  Alexander  is  said  to 
have  planted  Macedonian  colonies  at  Samaria,  at 
Scythopolis  (the  old  Beth-shean),  at  the  east  end 
of  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  where  the  high  road  to 
Damascus  descended  to  the  Jordan  valley,  and  also 
at  Neapolis  (Schechem) ,  the  old  centre  of  the  king- 
dom of  Israel.  The  Ptolemies  went  further,  and 
4  45 


HELLENISM 

subsequently  surrounded  the  Judean  plateau  with 
Greek  cities. 

Many  anthropologists  regard  the  ancient  Phil- 
istines as  immigrants  into  Palestine  from  Crete, 
who  brought  the  culture  of  the  Aegean  Islands  to 
the  East,  and  in  their  struggles  with  the  Hebrews 
marked  the  first  clashing  of  East  and  West."  The 
new  Philistia  was  more  certainly  peopled  by  the 
Greek  settlers.  Within  a  century  all  along  the 
Palestinian  coast,  and  likewise  in  the  country  east 
and  north-east  of  Jordan,  a  string  of  Greek  cities 
were  organized  as  semi-independent  city-states,  and 
beset  Judea,  as  It  were,  with  a  wall  of  Hellenistic 
culture.  On  the  coast  were  Gaza,  Ascalon,  Azotus 
(Ashdod),  Joppa  (the  modern  Jaffa),  Apollonia, 
Doris,  Sycamlna  Polls  (on  the  site  of  the  modern 
Haifa),  and  Ptolemaisor  Acco  (the  modern  Acre)  ; 
while  in  the  trans-Jordan  districts  of  Peraea,  then 
one  of  the  most  fertile  parts  of  Asia,  a  league  of  ten 
Greek  cities,  known  as  the  Decapolls,  comprised 
Damascus,  Gadara,  Gerasa,  Dium,  Philadelphia, 
Pella,  Raphia,  Scythopolls,  Hippo,  and  Canetha.*' 

To  this  day  no  part  of  the  eastern  world  can  show 
so  many  and  such  striking  Greek  ruins  as  the  coun- 
try east  of  the  Jordan.  The  plateau  of  Judea  alone 
remained  free  from  Greek  settlements:  its  soil  was 

46 


INTRODUCTION 

not  fertile  enough  to  attract  Macedonian  colonists. 
But  the  whole  of  Galilee,  which  already  In  the  days 
of  Isaiah  was  known  as  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles," 
was  Inhabited  by  a  mixed  population  In  which  the 
Jews  were  at  first  a  minority.     The  provinces  of 
Gaulanltis,  Batanea,  Trachonltis,  and  Auranitis,  to 
the  east  of  Palestine  proper,  had  likewise  Hellen- 
Ized,  and  for  the  most  part  non-Jewish,  Inhabitants. 
In  fact,   South  Judea   alone  possessed  a  compact 
Jewish  population  during  the  third  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  second  century.     The  Greek  cities  dis- 
played, superficially,  a  complete  establishment  of 
Greek  institutions  and  customs — magnificent  tem- 
ples to  the  Greek  gods  and  goddesses,  local  myths 
about  the  Greek  heroes  and  heroines,  gymnasia, 
public  baths,  annual  celebrations  of  games,  and  in 
many  cases  philosophical  schools  and  academies. 
Archaeology  proves  the  rapid  growth  of  Greek  art 
and  Greek  ideas  In  the  country,  and  one  of  the  most 
splendid  monuments  of  Hellenistic  sculpture,  the 
so-called  Sarcophagus  of  Alexander,  Is  from  SIdon. 
The  Stoic  teachers  of  Ascalon  were  famous,  as  were 
its  grammarians  and  historians;  while  Gadara,  on 
the  east  of  the  lake  of  Galilee,  produced  In  the  sec- 
ond century  a  distln^Ished  Epicurean  philosopher, 
Phrlodemus,   and    a    distinguished    epigrammatic 

47 


HELLENISM 

poet,  Meleager.  Greek  was  the  common  language 
throughout  the  Hellenlzed  districts  around  Judea, 
and  indeed  through  all  the  Hellenized  kingdoms 
from  Macedonia  to  India — not  the  pure  classical 
idiom  of  Athens,  but  a  conventionalized  dialect 
known  as  the  kolvy],  i.  e.,  the  common  tongue  or 
lingua  franca.  Thus,  by  the  middle  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, w^hen  the  Hellenizing  process  had  firmly  im- 
pressed the  vast  territory  that  Alexander  had 
brought  under  his  dominion,  Judea  and  the  Jews 
were,  in  large  measure,  isolated.  The  central  com- 
munity in  Palestine  and  the  scattered  congregations 
in  the  dispersion  were  alike  surrounded  by  a  Hellen- 
ized environment,  speaking  a  common  language, 
participating  in  common  cults,  sharing  a  common 
way  of  life,  and  professing  common  cosmopolitan 
Ideals.  A  certain  national  feeling  still  survived  in 
the  hom.e  of  Greek  culture,  a  few  remnants  of  It  In^ 
Egypt;  but,  for  the  rest,  save  in  the  Jewish  com- 
munities without  as  well  as  within  Judea,  there  was 
an  utter  decay  of  national  patriotism,  a  rush  to  a 
glittering,  soulless  cosmopolitanism,  a  divesting  of 
national  traditions,  and  a  superficial  adoption  of  a 
new  culture. 

It  was  impossible  that  the  Jews,  living  In  the 
midst  of  such  a  disintegrated  society,  and  forming 

48 


INTRODUCTION 


part  of  a  *'  melting-pot  empire,"  should  not  be 
affected  by  the  denationalizing  tendencies.  They 
were  encompassed  by  an  influence  as  subtle  as  the  at- 
mosphere. Little  or  no  attempt  was  made  to  compel 
them  to  uniformity,  but  the  very  absence  of  external 
pressure  made  the  resistance  to  the  surrounding 
ideas  the  harder.  Persecution,  as  all  history  has 
shown,  is  calculated  to  strengthen  the  individuality 
of  the  persecuted,  and  assimilation  is  most  difficult 
to  combat  when  there  is  toleration  of  the  differences 
of  a  minority  by  a  dominant  majority.  It  was  only 
the  profound  working  of  the  synagogue  and  the  re- 
ligious law  upon  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  the 
consciousness  of  being  a  chosen  people  entrusted 
with  a  spiritual  heritage,  that  preserved  the  Jews 
from  absorption  in  the  stream  of  Hellenism  which 
dissolved  every  other  form  of  culture.  Some 
amount  of  assimilation  and  imitation  inevitably 
took  place.  When  It  came  into  contact  with  tri- 
umphant Hellenism,  the  Jewish  life  lacked  all  that 
elegance  and  refinement,  the  beauty  of  form,  and  the 
ministration  to  the  aesthetic  senses  which  the 
Greeks  had  strikingly  developed  in  their  national 
life  and  carried  far  and  wide  in  their  dispersion. 
Moreover,  Jewish  thought  lacked  that  systematic 
expression  of  intellectual  ideas,  the  searching  out  of 

49 


\ 


HELLENISM 

nature,  and  the  inquiry  into  ultimate  causes  which 
represented  the  deeper  note  of  the  Hellenic  spirit, 
and  now,  to  an  extent,  became  the  common  property 
of  the  cultured  world.  Greek  manners,  Greek 
words,  Greek  ideas,  were  introduced  into  Judea : 
the  Greek  language  and  Greek  culture  made  their 
way  more  thoroughly  into  the  communities  of  the 
diaspora.  The  two  advances  of  Hellenization, 
which  progressed  under  different  conditions  for  the 
two  main  parts  of  the  Jewish  people,  must  be  exam- 
ined separately;  the  outcome  in  each  was  different, 
but  the  struggle  in  both  cases  centered  around  the 
same  point:  the  national  religion.  The  essential 
conflict  between  Hebraism  and  Hellenism  in  the 
ancient  world  was  a  conflict  between  monotheism 
and  paganism.  But  in  order  to  appreciate  the 
nature  of  the  struggle  and  its  importance  in  the 
history  of  human  development,  it  is  necessary  ta 
consider  the  character  of  the  Hellenism  with  which, 
in  the  third  and  second  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era,  Judaism  was  brought  face  to  face. 


60 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

The  late  Professor  Butcher,  in  a  lecture  on 
Hebraism  and  Hellenism,  quotes  a  verse  of  some 
ancient  poet: 

Thus  the  sharp  contrast  of  the  sculptor's  plan 
Showed  the  two  primal  paths  our  race  has  trod. 
Hellas,  the  nurse  of  man  complete  as  man, 
Judea,  pregnant  with  the  living  God. 

This  antithesis  between  Hellenism  and  Hebraism 
was  impressed  somewhat  differently  upon  the 
English  people  by  a  teacher  of  the  last  century,  who 
had  a  remarkable  power  of  fixing  general  ideas  in 
pointed  phrases  and  establishing  epigrammatic 
judgments  upon  the  history  of  civilization.  Mat- 
thew Arnold  laid  down,  with  an  insistence  which  al- 
most repels  question,  that  "  the  uppermost  idea 
with  Hellenism  is  to  see  things  as  they  really  are, 
the  uppermost  idea  with  Hebraism  is  conduct  and 
obedience."  The  ruling  principle  in  the  one  case 
is  spontaneity  of  consciousness;  in  the  other  strict- 
ness of  conscience.     The  Greeks  were  objective, 

51 


HELLENISM 

the  Hebrews  subjective  In  their  outlook.  Now  the 
contrast  between  the  Hebrew  people,  concentrating 
their  thought  on  God  and  morality,  and  the 
Hellenic  people,  developing  to  their  highest  ex- 
cellence the  human  faculties  and  especially  the 
power  of  reason,  is  broadly  true.  While  their 
independent  city-states  flourished  from  the  eighth 
to  the  third  century,  the  Greeks,  or  Hellenes,  as  they 
are  more  properly  called,'  developed  a  literary,  a 
plastic,  and  a  dramatic  art,  such  as  no  other  people 
at  any  epoch  has  equalled;  they  evolved  a  system  of 
social  and  political  life  more  harmonious  and  more 
beautiful  than  any  subsequent  development  of  the 
state;  and,  lastly,  they  fostered  a  freedom  of 
thought  and  an  intellectual  searching  into  the  nature 
of  things  which  have  been  an  inspiration  to  every 
enlightened  age.  On  the  other  hand,  the  people  of 
Israel  and  Judah  had  produced  but  little  of  special 
excellence  in  any  of  these  directions,  save  a  body  of 
laws,  which  they  held  to  be  divinely  revealed,  and  a 
collection  of  writings  dealing  with  God's  relation  to 
the  individual  man  and  to  the  nation  and  with  the 
individual  and  national  conception  of  God.  But 
they  had  organized  a  system  of  life  based  upon 
these  laws  and  writings,  which  embodied  the  lofty 
conceptions  of  their  sages,  and  made  the  daily  con- 

52 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

duct  of  the  mass  an  expression  of  the  national  phil- 
osophy. There  had  been  no  such  thorough  impreg- 
nation of  the  Hellenic  national  life  with  the  thought 
of  the  philosophers.  While  the  cultivation  and  ap- 
preciation of  beauty  were  a  common  possession,  the 
search  for  truth  and  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
had  been  throughout,  even  in  the  most  brilliant 
periods  of  culture,  the  pursuit  of  the  few.  The 
mass  of  the  people  retained  the  primitive  notions 
about  the  nature  of  the  divinity  and  the  rudi- 
mentary ideas  of  morality,  of  which  the  deeper 
thinkers  had  exposed  the  falseness. 

Thus,  side  by  side  with  the  most  finely-trained 
sense  of  physical  excellence  and  literary  form,  a 
crude  polytheism  and  dark  superstitious  practices 
existed  in  Hellas.  In  the  heyday  of  Greek  life  the 
high  standard  of  public  morality  which  was  evoked 
by  the  sense  of  the  individual's  duty  to  the  state, 
checked  the  lower  instincts  of  paganism.  But  with 
the  decay  of  patriotism  in  the  city-state,  which 
finally  led  to  the  conquest  of  Hellas  by  the  semi-civ- 
ilized Macedonian  power,  the  sanction  of  public 
morality  passed  away,  and  a  moral  decline  was 
bound  to  follow.  "  The  Greek  state,"  said  the  late 
Professor  Caird,  "  and  the  ethical  harmony  of  life 
realized  in  it,  could  be  regarded  only  as  the  creation 

53 


HELLENISM 

of  a  people  of  artists,  who  by  a  combination  of  skill 
and  good  fortune  had  for  once  moulded  the 
untoward  matter  of  human  existence  into  a  political 
work  of  art."  But  neither  the  state,  nor  the 
ethical  harmony  of  life  realized  in  it  was  capable  of 
transplantation  to  the  Greater  Greece  which  was 
constituted  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
The  Hellenistic  culture  which  was  spread  over  Alex- 
ander's empire  was  very  different  from  the  Hellenic 
culture  which  had  flourished  in  the  communities 
acquired  by  Philip  of  Macedon.  The  outward 
show  of  the  life  of  the  city-state  could  be  repro- 
duced— the  temples  with  their  columns  and  orna- 
ments, the  splendid  public  places  of  meeting  and 
amusement,  the  gymnasia  with  their  contests,  the 
festal  processions  with  their  music  and  dancing,  the 
civic  theatres  with  their  mythological  dramas,  and 
the  academies  with  their  teachers  and  scholars — all 
these  were  multiplied  over  vast  kingdoms.  But 
the  ideal  spirit  of  struggle  for  human  perfection, 
which  had  given  to  Hellenic  culture  its  distinctive 
excellence,  was  lacking  in  the  imitation,  and  the 
defect  deprived  it  of  the  old  ennobling  influence. 
Just  as  in  the  Hellenistic  age  the  creative  power  in 
art  died  away,  so  also  the  freedom  of  thought  and 
the  intellectual  eagerness  were  wanting.     "  Hellen- 

54 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

ism  properly  so-called  never  passed  over  Into  Asia 
.  .  .  .  Its  living  force,  productive  genius,  self- 
organizing  power,  and  active  spirit  of  political  com- 
munion were  stifled  and  gradually  died  out.  All 
that  passed  was  a  faint  and  partial  resemblance  of 
it,  carrying  the  superficial  marks  of  the  original."  ' 
We  may  think,  by  way  of  comparison,  of  the 
Frenchified  civilization  of  the  Levant  in  our  own 
time,  which  is  a  poor  imitation  of  the  genuine 
French  culture. 

It  was  then,  for  the  most  part,  a  soulless  culture 
which  the  half-Hellenized  Macedonians  and  the 
degenerate  offspring  of  the  Hellenic  city-state 
brought  to  the  East.  Its  religious  teaching  did  not 
form  an  organic  element  in  the  life  of  the  citizen, 
and  was  either  an  intellectual  diversion,  or  a  way  of 
salvation  for  souls  weary  of  the  world.  And  when 
it  was  mingled  with  Oriental  ideas,  it  degenerated 
into  an  altogether  bastard  growth  of  sensuality  and 
rationalism.  The  Hellenistic  city-state  which  was 
spread  over  Alexander's  empire,  missed  the  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  excellence  of  its  model.  The 
mixed  population  which  inhabited  it  had  a  varnish, 
as  it  were,  of  high  culture ;  but  below  the  varnish  a 
motley  mixture  of  primitive  superstitions,  barbarous 
fears  and  feelings,  coarse  passions,  and  crude  ideas 

55 


HELLENISM 

and  beliefs,  springing  out  of  the  old  eastern  cults, 
marred  the  Hellenic  conception  of  life. 

The  two  deeper  influences  which  the  Hellenistic 
civilization  conveyed  over  the  Oriental  world  were : 
i)  the  religious  cults;  2)  the  philosophical  sys- 
tems ;  the  first  designed  for  the  masses,  the  second 
for  the  select  band  of  intellectuals.  Both  soon 
showed  a  remarkable  degradation  from  the  spirit  of 
Hellenism  in  its  home.  Lacking  a  mould  of  re- 
sistance to  outside  Influences  such  as  Hebraism  pos- 
sessed In  Its  sacred  law  and  Its  organization  In 
synagogues,  Hellenism  received  from  its  new  en- 
vironment many  Impurities.  In  order  to  appreciate 
its  decadence  In  the  diaspora,  we  may  briefly  con- 
sider the  Hellenic  religion  of  the  classical  age. 

The  Olympian  hierarchy  was  primarily  an  In- 
terpretation of  nature.  The  elements,  the  celestial 
bodies,  and  the  native  forces,  which  formed  the  raw 
material  of  polytheism  among  every  people,  were 
Invested  by  the  fertile  and  beautiful  fancy  of  the 
Hellenes  with  a  full  personality,  and  reproduced  in 
the  heavens  all  the  "  passions  and  pleasures,  the 
wishes  and  quarrels,  of  the  human  family."  *  In  or- 
der that  man  should  be  at  home  In  the  world  and 
preserved  from  fear  of  the  unseen  powers  about 
him,  "  all  that  is  unintelligible,  all  that  Is  alien  to 

50 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

him,  has  been  drawn,  as  It  were,  from  Its  dark  re- 
treat, clothed  In  radiant  form,  and  presented  to  the 
mind  as  a  glorified  Image  of  Itself."  *  While  the 
Hebraic  seer  soared  straight  to  the  Idea  of  one, 
supreme,  transcendental  Ruler,  ordaining  all  things 
In  heaven  and  earth,  removed  above  all  human 
qualities,  yet  In  close  communion  with  man  through 
the  law  of  righteousness  which  He  revealed  to  them, 
the  Hellenic  poet  transformed  every  phenomenon 
of  nature,  black  night  and  rosy-fingered  dawn,  earth 
and  sun,  winds  and  rivers,  sleep  and  death,  into 
separate  divine  and  conscious  agents,  to  be  propiti- 
ated by  prayer,  interpreted  by  divination,  compre- 
hended by  passions  and  desires  identical  with  those 
which  stir  and  control  mankind.  The  human  pas- 
sions and  faculties  themselves,  which,  though  part 
of  man,  seemed  to  possess  him  from  without,  were 
invested  by  the  mythological  and  plastic  mind  of 
the  Hellene  with  divine  personality.  Converting 
nature-powers  which  his  ancestors  had  brought 
from  the  East  to  new  spiritual  values,  he  incarnated 
in  Aphrodite  the  passion  of  love,  in  Ares  the  lust  of 
war,  in  Athene  wisdom,  and  In  Apollo  the  arts. 

But  as  Hellenic  life  found  its  highest  expression 
In  the  city,  the  Hellenic  theodicy  was  closely  associ- 
ated with  the  community.     The  gods  and  the  divine 

57 


HELLENISM 

heroes  were  the  founders  and  the  sustainers  of  civil 
society;  and  not  only  the  community  as  a  whole,  but 
its  separate  minor  organs  were  under  the  protection 
of  patron  deities.  The  state's  relation  to  the  gods 
was  expressed  in  ritual  and  art,  in  the  festal  games, 
the  dramatic  performances,  the  splendid  proces- 
sions, the  majestic  temples,  the  idealized  statues,  of 
which  the  record  and  the  relics  have  aroused  the 
admiration  of  every  succeeding  age.  And  together 
the  Olympian  gods  were  the  protectors  and  guardi- 
ans of  Hellenic  national  life,  preserving  it  from  con- 
tamination by  the  inferior  barbarian  peoples,  and 
animating  it  with  the  consciousness  of  a  common 
origin  and  common  beliefs. 

Now  in  the  prime  of  Hellas  this  religious  system, 
created  by  the  poetic  fancy  and  the  harmonizing 
spirit  of  the  people,  had  satisfied  their  minds  and 
had  given  a  real  inspiration  to  life.  But  when 
philosophers  began  to  reflect  and  speculate  about 
the  nature  of  reality,  its  lack  of  truth  and  serious- 
ness and  its  weakness  as  a  moral  influence  became 
apparent.  The  two  dominating  principles  of 
Hellenism,  the  desire  to  know  the  truth  of  things 
and  the  desire  to  harmonize  life,  were  in  conflict. 
Hence  the  greatest  poets  and  philosophers  of  the 
golden  age  of  Hellenism  in  the  fifth  and  faurtk 

58 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

centuries  protested  against  the  popular  religion. 
Aristophanes  genially  ridicules  it;  Euripides  dra- 
matically impugns  its  anthropomorphism;  finally 
Plato  in  his  ideal  Republic  proposes  to  root  it  out, 
and  substitute  in  its  place  the  idea  that  "  God  is  a 
being  of  perfect  simplicity  and  truth,  both  in  deed 
and  in  word,  and  neither  changes  in  himself,  nor 
imposes  upon  others  either  by  apparitions  or  by 
words,  or  by  sending  signs,  whether  in  dreams  or  in 
waking  moments."  " 

The  Greek  sages  attained  to  a  lofty  conception 
of  God,  and  were  fully  conscious  of  the  falseness 
and  also  of  the  demoralizing  influence  of  the  cur- 
rent paganism;  and  the  most  splendid  of  them 
formulated  a  conception  of  the  divine  goodness  and 
unity  which  does  not  fall  far  short  of  the  Hebraic 
monotheism.  They  identified  God,  indeed,  with 
some  abstract  or  metaphysical  term,  and  did  not 
invest  Him  with  life  and  personality;  and  con- 
ceived Him  rather  as  a  final  than  an  eflicient  active 
cause — that  toward  which  all  existence  moves,  more 
than  that  from  which  all  being  comes.  Yet  they  did 
clear  away  from  the  idea  of  the  divinity  the  crude 
material  mythology,  and  associated  it  with  morality. 
But  whereas  the  prophets  and  the  scribes  and  the 
Men  of  the  Great  Synagogue  not  only  swept  away 

59 


HELLENISM 

the  vestiges  of  Idolatry,  but  made  the  belief  in  one 
universal  God  and  the  observance  of  the  law  of 
righteousness  part  of  the  life  of  the  Jewish  people, 
the  Hellenic  philosophers  and  poets  did  not  affect 
the  ideas  of  the  main  body  of  their  fellows.  The 
saying  that  Hellenism  paid  regard  to  beauty  and 
Judaism  to  conduct  has  this  amount  of  truth:  in 
Hellas  it  was  the  feeling  for  beauty,  in  Judea  the 
law  of  righteousness  which  impregnated  the  mass 
and  determined  the  distinctive  character  of  the 
people.  And  when  Judaism  and  Hellenism  ex- 
panded outside  their  national  boundaries,  these  were 
the  contrasted  ideas  which  they  carried  with  them 
into  the  diaspora. 

The  Homeric  mythology  remained  the  basis  of 
the  state  religion  in  the  Hellenistic  empires,  but, 
with  the  spread  of  rationalism,  its  hollowness  was 
thinly  veiled.  The  religion  of  the  Greeks,  which 
had  become  the  amusement  of  their  scepticism,  now 
decayed  Into  an  empty  ceremonial.  The  priests 
tried  to  satisfy  the  people  with  fine  shows,  but  made 
no  attempt  to  influence  conduct.  Even  the  shows, 
after  a  time,  lost  their  attraction,  and  it  is  signifi- 
cant that  the  word  which  originally  meant  consecra- 
tion came  to  imply  careless  performance. 

60 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

If  the  philosophers  failed  to  raise  the  people  to 
their  higher  conceptions,  the  sophists  who  were  the 
popular  lecturers,  and,  as  it  were,  the  journalists  of 
the  day,  did  succeed  in  spreading  a  cheap  and  crude 
scepticism  which  undermined  such  faith  in  the  old 
divine  hierarchy  as  remained.  Rationalism  is  the 
stamp  of  the  first  two  centuries  of  Hellenistic 
culture.  But  the  common  people  will  always  re- 
quire some  object  of  worship,  and  the  Hellenistic 
age  saw  the  growth  of  a  number  of  new  cults  which 
closely  reflect  its  character.  In  the  confusion  which 
accompanied  the  incessant  wars  of  Alexander's  suc- 
cessors, the  power  that  seemed  to  control  things  was 
fortune  or  chance;  and  to  this  deity — the  Greek 
Ti'xr; — the  most  constant  court  was  paid.  Pliny, 
in  a  well-known  passage  reproducing  a  Hellenistic 
source,  writes: '  "  Throughout  the  whole  world  at 
every  hour  and  place,  by  every  voice.  Fortune  alone 
is  invoked,  and  her  name  spoken:  she  is  the  one 
defendant,  the  one  culprit,  the  one  thought  in 
men's  minds,  the  one   object  of  praise,   the  one 

cause We  are  so  much  at  the  mercy 

of    Chance,    that    Chance    is    our   God."      More 
ominous  than  the  worship  of  Fortune  was  the  grow- 
ing cult  of  the  stars  and  planets. 
5  61 


HELLENISM 

Certain  dark  fears  and  forebodings,  a  substratum 
of  primitive  superstitions,  had  always  lurked  be- 
neath the  outward  brightness  of  Hellenic  life.  This 
Hinterland  of  thought  came  into  prominence  when 
the  Greeks  met  eastern  civilization.  The  re- 
ligious systems  of  Assyria  and  Chaldea  frequently 
conceived  of  the  gods  as  evil  spirits  which  are  to  be 
placated;  and  as,  in  the  general  interchange  of 
thought,  the  elements  of  their  civilization  pene- 
trated the  Hellenic  world,  the  superstitious  seeds 
which  were  already  there  were  nourished,  and  pro- 
duced a  rank  harvest.  Scepticism  and  superstition 
are  closely  allied,  and  the  step  was  inevitable  from 
disbelief  in  the  state  gods  to  gross  terror  of  the 
heavenly  powers  that  seemed  "  to  fix  man's  destiny 
without  regard  to  human  will  and  human  fears." 
One  may  find  a  parallel  In  modern  America,  where 
the  decay  of  the  old  faiths  has  led  on  to  the  spread 
of  the  so-called  Christian  Science.  The  faith  In 
astrology,  spreading  from  Babylon  westwards,  be- 
came an  obsession  of  the  age;  the  Jewish  sages 
opposed  It,  and  continually  denounced  It,  but  many 
of  the  people  devoutly  believed  In  It.  The  stars 
were  regarded  as  the  absolute  rulers  of  the  world — 
had  not  Aristotle  taught  that  they  were  divine 
beings? — and  the  influence  of  the  seven  planets  on 

62 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

human  life  was  a  commonplace  of  thought.  The 
Jewish  good-wish  is  still  "  Mazzol-Tov  " — May 
your  planet  he  good — and  our  planet-week  still 
bears  witness  to  the  popularity  of  the  idea.  "  As- 
trology fell  upon  the  Hellenistic  mind  as  a  new 
disease  falls  upon  some  remote  island  people ;  and 
the  religion  of  later  antiquity  was  overpoweringly 
absorbed  in  plans  of  escape  from  the  prison  of  the 
Seven  Planets."  ' 

From  the  fusion  of  eastern  ideas  with  the  old 
Hellenic  mystical  teaching  known  as  Orphism 
(which  probably  itself  had  an  Oriental  origin)  all 
kinds  of  strange  cults  arose,  ranging  from  the 
monastic  spirituality  of  the  neo-Pythagorean 
brotherhood  to  the  wildest  sensualities  of  the 
votaries  of  Bacchus  and  Isis.  Men  sought  desper- 
ately for  some  union  with  the  divine  power,  either 
through  "  ecstasy  " — the  release  of  the  soul  from 
the  body — or  through  "  enthusiasm  " — the  posses- 
sion of  the  soul  by  the  god.  ''  People  have  lost 
their  soul,"  said  Dr.  Johnson  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  "  out  of  their  body,  and  now  turn  hither 
and  thither  in  search  of  it  " ;  and  his  words  exactly 
describe  the  condition  of  society  In  the  Hellenistic 
period.  To  recover  their  souls  some  people  ate 
their  god  or  drank  his  blood,  others  swallowed  his 

63 


HELLENISM 

name,  others  sanctified  themselves  by  wild  dances. 
At  the  same  time  the  belief  in  the  Immortality  of 
the  soul,  which  In  the  flush  of  national  life  had  not 
been  widespread,  was  strengthened,  and  the  "  mys- 
teries "  were  largely  concerned  with  the  purification 
of  the  soul  for  the  future  life.  The  Idea  of  a  per- 
sonal redemption  through  union  with  the  divine 
spirit  lay  at  the  heart  of  all  that  was  vital  In  the 
religious  thought  of  the  Hellenistic  age. 

It  was  a  common  feature  of  these  mystical  cults 
to  place  a  mediator  between  the  devotee  and  the 
god  whom  he  seeks.  Man  could  not  soar  up  to  the 
abstract  godhead  direct,  so  he  peopled  the  celestial 
sphere  with  manifold  spirits  and  demons  who  would 
interpose  their  Influence  on  his  behalf,  If  supplicated 
aright.  In  order  to  bring  the  deity  nearer  to  the 
earth,  the  figure  of  man  was  projected  Into  the  god- 
head. Under  the  Influence  of  the  Egyptian  wor- 
ship of  IsIs  and  Osiris,  the  conception  of  the  primal 
man  gained  a  footing  in  philosophy  and  religion. 
He  was  distributed  through  all  things,  and  played 
an  Important  part  In  the  origin  of  the  universe;  he 
was  even  resolved  Into  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas 
of  the  Stoic  philosophy.  The  Influence  of  eastern 
Ideas  again  was  responsible  for  the  deification  of 
kings,  living  and  dead.     True  Hellenism  by  its 

64 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

Instinctive  moderation  apprehended  the  difference 
between  man  and  God.     Though  the  gods  were 
conceived  in  a  human  likeness,  a  definite  Hne  of  de- 
marcation was  fixed  between  their  world  and  human 
beings.   But  the  megalomania  and  likewise  the  self- 
debasement  of  the  Oriental  were  greater;  on  the 
one  hand  divine  rights  were  demanded,  on  the  other 
conceded  to  the  rulers.    Kings  had  been  worshipped 
in  Egypt  from  the  oldest  times  as  the  highest  gods 
incarnate ;  and  the  Hellenistic  sovereigns,  adopting 
the  Egyptian  prerogative,  established  their  worship 
throughout  their  kingdoms.     Hence  the  idea  of  the 
Incarnation  of  the  divine  power  was  popularized  in 
the  lands  of  the  East.     The  marvellous  career  of 
Alexander  gave  him  some  claim  to  be  regarded  as 
a  God-man ;  but  the  honor  which  was  given  to  him 
after  death  was  accorded,  without  the  same  justifi- 
cation, to  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Seleucids  and  their 
spouses  in  their  lives.     The  Savior,  the  Benefac- 
tor, the  God-manifest,  are  the  titles  by  which  the 
rulers  of  Egypt  and  Syria  loved  to  be  known  to  their 
subjects;  and  most  of  their  subjects  were  not  loth 
to    placate    them.     The    Jewish    moralists    alone 
raised  their  voices  against  this  degradation  of  re- 
ligion.     From    Egypt,    too,   came   the   notion   of 
trinities  of  divine  powers,  which  was  innate  in  the 

65 


HELLENISM 

ancient  hieratic  religion.  The  mystical  connection 
of  Isis,  Osiris,  and  Horus  Is  the  prototype  of  a  vast 
development  of  Hellenistic  theology.  Egypt  is  the 
hearth  of  materialistic  theology,  of  the  notions  of 
the  immaculate  conception,  the  divine  incarnation, 
the  various  chambers  of  the  after-world;  and 
Hellenistic  theology  is  marked  by  a  gradual  sur- 
render of  Greek  to  Egyptian  thought. 

At  Alexandria,  then,  and  throughout  the 
Hellenistic  kingdoms,  Greek  religion  lost  Its  ideal 
element,  and  became  a  mixture  of  universal  scepti- 
cism and  empty  show,  of  gross  superstitious  beliefs 
In  magic  and  astrology,  and  of  Oriental  mysticism 
and  human  abasement.  It  lacked  for  the  most  part 
a  moral  law,  a  sincere  faith  in  divine  help,  a  simple 
explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  world,  a  consola- 
tion in  trouble  and  death.  These  were  the  very 
things  which  Judaism  offered  to  a  weary  and  jaded 
humanity.  Is  it  surprising  that  it  should  have  be- 
come conscious  of  Its  superiority,  and  have  not  only 
resisted  the  assimilation  of  the  surrounding  cults, 
but  emerged  as  a  vigorous  missionary  faith? 

The  decay  of  philosophy  runs  parallel  with  the 
degeneration  of  Hellenic  religion.  Philosophy  at 
Athens  represented  the  most  splendid  efforts  of  the 
human  mind  to  know  the  truth,  to  see  things  as  they 

66 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

really  are.  It  Is  true  that  a  Socrates  was  con- 
demned and  put  to  death  by  his  countrymen  for  his 
"  atheism  "  and  for  leading  men  astray  by  his  dia- 
lectics; but  his  treatment  was  exceptional,  and  pro- 
voked by  a  peculiar  crisis  In  Athenian  public  life. 
Each  man  was  ordinarily  left  free  to  think  out  as 
he  chose  the  problems  of  the  universe  and  to  form 
schools  of  any  who  wished  to  follow  his  teaching. 
Aristotle  opens  his  history  of  philosophy  by  a  state- 
ment that  all  men  desire  to  know  about  things ;  and 
his  standpoint  Is  characteristic  of  the  Hellene.  Else- 
where he  expresses  very  strikingly  the  love  of 
knowledge  as  It  was  conceived  by  the  Hellenic 
mind : '  ''  Let  us  not  listen  to  those  who  tell  us  that, 
as  men  and  mxortals,  we  should  mind  only  the  things 
of  mortality.  But  so  far  as  we  may,  we  should 
bear  ourselves  as  Immortals,  and  do  all  that  In  us 
lies  to  live  In  accord  with  the  sovereign  principle  of 
Reason,  which  is  our  true  self,  and  which  is  supreme 
in  capacity  and  dignity." 

With  this  expression  of  Greek  passion  for 
knowledge  we  may  compare  the  standpoint  of  the 
Jewish  sages,  that  man  should  only  seek  to  know 
the  things  of  this  world,  as  it  Is  said :  "  The  heavens 
are  the  heavens  of  the  Lord;  but  the  earth  hath  He 
given  to  the  children  of  men  " ; '  and  again:   ''  For 

67 


HELLENISM 

My  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  are 
your  ways  My  ways  "; '"  or  in  the  words  of  Ben 
Sira :  "  Seek  not  things  that  are  too  hard  for  thee, 
and  search  not  out  things  that  are  above  thy 
strength."  " 

From  the  sixth  to  the  fourth  century,  a  number 
of  philosophical  schools  flourished  in  Hellas  and 
Ionia,  and  besides  the  philosophers  proper,  the 
sophists,  who  claimed  to  know  all  that  there  was  to 
know  or  all  that  was  worth  knowing,  purveyed  a 
general  culture.  The  Intellectual  activity  and  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  culminated  in  the  teaching  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle.  The  two  supreme  figures  of  ancient 
philosophy,  the  one  the  master  of  those  who  think, 
the  other  of  those  who  know,  gathered  the  finest 
thought  of  Hellas  on  the  nature  of  being  and  on  the 
pursuit  of  the  good,  on  the  state  and  the  individual, 
on  poetry  and  fine  art,  on  logic  and  rhetoric,  on 
physics  and  mathematics.  The  Hellenic  mind 
searched  into  every  aspect  of  human  life,  and  sought 
the  truth  about  It.  Ethics  and  theology  w^ere 
always  an  important  part  of  their  philosophical 
systems,  and  from  the  time  of  Socrates  they  were  the 
chief  concern;  but  they  were  studied  without  any 
religious  preconception.  The  philosophers  were 
conscious  of  the  hollowness  of  the  popular  polythe- 

68 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

ism,  and  their  object  was  to  provide  inquiring  minds 
with  an  account  of  the  universe  which  should  be 
more  satisfying  than  the  poetic  mythology.  Both 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  indeed,  attained  by  reflective 
reason  to  a  conception  of  the  single  government  of 
the  universe.  For  Plato  the  ultimate  principle  is 
the  Idea  of  the  Good  working  through  a  number  of 
subordinate  spiritual  existences  or  Ideas  which  are 
in  part  ethically  conceived.  There  was  an  idea  of 
justice,  of  beauty,  of  truth,  and  human  excellence. 
Aristotle  likewise  derives  the  Cosmos  from  one 
supreme  principle,  the  Primum  Mobile  of  the 
scholastic  philosophy,  which  has  as  its  ministering 
agencies  the  divine  powers  that  dwell  in  the  stars. 
The  Hellenic  genius  thus  gradually  worked  its  way 
from  the  multiplicity  of  causes  and  deities  to  the 
idea  of  one  Moving  Cause,  which  was  at  first  ma- 
terially but  in  the  end  spiritually  conceived.  But 
it  never  reached  the  notion  of  a  personal  God;  its 
supreme  deity  remained  a  creation  of  the  reflective 
reason,  abstract  and  impersonal,  cold  and  aloof 
from  humanity. 

The  teachings  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  were 
handed  down,  respectively,  in  the  Academic  and 
Peripatetic  schools.  But  the  spirit  of  the  masters 
did    not    survive    them.     Greek    philosophy    like 


HELLENISM 

Greek  art  and  Greek  religion,  was  the  offspring  of 
Greek  political  life,  and  with  the  subjection  of  the 
city-state  the  eager  search  for  truth  no  less  than  the 
harmony  of  life  was  irretrievably  lost.  Men  had  no 
stimulus  and  little  leisure  for  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge  for  its  own  sake  during  the  ceaseless  wars 
which  followed  on  the  death  of  Alexander  the 
Great;  they  required  practical  guidance  in  life,  and 
a  certain  answer  to  their  questions  about  the  nature 
of  reality.  Thought  became  dogmatic,  and  phil- 
osophy practical.  These  characteristics  mark  the 
two  post-Aristotelian  schools,  the  Stoics  and  the 
Epicureans,  which  soon  became  the  most  prominent 
over  the  Hellenistic  world.  Ethics  rather  than 
the  discovery  of  truth  was  the  chief  consideration 
in  both ;  and  the  aim  was  to  devise  a  plan  of  the  good 
life  for  the  individual  so  that  he  should  be  inde- 
pendent of  outward  circumstances.  To  satisfy  the 
speculative  bent  of  the  Greek  people,  which  still 
insisted  on  some  rational  explanation  of  the  uni- 
verse, a  system  of  logic  and  of  physics  was  attached 
to  the  ethical  doctrine.  But,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, the  true  centre  of  interest  changed.  The 
logical  and  physical  teachings  of  the  Stoics  and  the 
Epicureans  were  a  dogmatic  framework  designed 
to  fit  their  ethical  tenets.    The  new  science,  like  the 

70 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

old  mythology,  was  an  attempt  to  make  the  world 
intelligible  and  comfortable.  Happiness,  not  truth, 
was  the  end. 

Stoicism  was  the  most  characteristic,  as  it  was  also 
the  most  powerful,  intellectual  expression  of 
Hellenistic  culture.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  greater 
Hellas,  of  which  Syria  and  Palestine  formed  a  part, 
and  its  founders  came  from  the  Hellenized  Orient: 
Zeno  from  Citium  in  Cyprus,  Cleanthes  from  Assos 
in  Asia  Minor,  while  later  some  of  its  most  famous 
exponents  were  sprung  from  Ascalon,  Tarsus,  and 
Alexandria.  Probably  it  possessed  an  original  in- 
fusion of  Semitic  thought,  and  it  professed  from  the 
beginning  a  cosmopolitan  ideal  in  which  national 
differences  were  to  be  swept  away,  and  all  men  were 
to  be  bound  together  by  brotherly  love  and  one 
common  faith.  The  cosmopolitan  tendency  was 
one  of  the  features  of  the  time;  philosophers  pro- 
claimed themselves  citizens  of  the  world,  and  in 
place  of  the  old  Hellenic  exclusiveness  advocated 
the  fusion  of  all  cultures.  The  Jews  alone  held 
fast  to  a  national  way  of  life. 

Unity  and  simplicity  were  the  leading  motives  of 
the  Stoic  system,  but  they  were  attained  by  the 
merging  of  higher  and  lower  conceptions.  The 
Stoics  conceived  the  world  as  the  manifestation  of 

71 


HELLENISM 

one  principle  which  was  variously  described — ma- 
terially as  fire,  spiritually  as  reason.  This  principle 
permeated  and  comprehended  all  things : 

All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul. 

The  religious  creed  of  pantheism  finds  its  finest 
expression  in  the  hymn  of  Cleanthes  to  Zeus.  The 
writer  proclaims  the  divine  element  in  man:  "  For 
our  race  is  of  Thee;  we  alone  of  all  the  mortal 
things  that  live  and  creep  on  the  earth  have  obtained 
a  reflection  of  speech.  To  Thee  all  this  universe, 
which  revolves  around  the  earth,  hearkeneth  obed- 
iently, wheresoever  Thou  directest  it,  and  willingly 
acknowledgeth  Thy  sway.  .  .  .  Thou  canst  make 
the  odd  even,  and  bring  order  into  chaos,  and  what 
is  unlovely  may  be  lovely  to  Thee." 

Similarly  the  Stoic  ethical  doctrine  was  summed 
up  in  the  single  rule  that  man  should  follow  nature, 
i.  e.,  the  spirit  of  the  whole  cosmos,  and  live  ac- 
cording to  reason.  Negatively  he  was  to  eschew  all 
emotion,  and  root  out  all  the  passions  which  carried 
him  away  from  the  rational  life.  He  must  be  inde- 
pendent and  self-reJiant,  needing  neither  divine  nor 
human  help.  Positively  he  must  try  to  discover  the 
law  of  nature,  and  live  according  to  it  in  harmony 
with  the  world-process. 

72 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

In  practice,  however,  the  Stoics  who  aimed  at  a 
universal  religion  and  almost  at  a  universal  church, 
made  terms  with  the  popular  polytheism,  and 
sought  to  adapt  their  pantheism  to  it.  They  had  a 
power  of  assimilation  and  adaptation  which  ren- 
dered them  the  most  successful  missionaries  of  the 
ancient  world,  the  lineal  predecessors  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  Pantheism  can  find  room  for  a 
number  of  gods:  it  has  only  to  d^'strlbute  its  col- 
lective deity  among  the  various  powers  it  wishes  to 
absorb.  This  is  what  the  Stoics  did,  and  thus  be- 
came the  champions  of  Hellenic  polytheism  against 
a  higher  conception  of  God.  They  distinguished 
between  the  universal  divine  power,  working  as  a 
unity  In  the  world,  and  Its  individual  parts.  The 
stars  were  deified,  the  air  was  peopled  with  demons 
and  unseen  powers,  and  the  Olympian  hierarchy 
received  a  fresh  lease  of  life  as  the  retinue  of  the 
supreme  divine  principle.  Among  the  chief  de- 
vices by  which  their  philosophy  was  adapted  to  the 
popular  ideas  was  the  allegorical  interpretation  of 
the  Greek  epic  poems.  Homer  was  venerated  by 
the  Greeks  of  the  Hellenistic  age  almost  as  much  as 
the  Bible  by  the  Jews;  and  in  the  desire  to  show 
that  he  had  anticipated  their  doctrines,  the  Stoics 
sought  beneath  the  letter  of  his  verse  for  hidden 

73 


HELLENISM 

meanings,  and  prospected  with  great  skill  in  ety- 
mologies. The  motive  that  prompted  them  is 
simply  stated  by  one  Heraclitus,  a  famous  exponent 
of  the  allegorist's  art:  "  If  Homer  used  no  alle- 
gories, he  committed  all  impieties." 

Characteristically  of  the  new  spirit  of  the  age, 
philosophers  were  impelled  to  find  authority  for 
their  teaching  in  the  works  of  the  national  poets,  or 
at  least  they  felt  the  necessity  of  reconciling  the 
ancient  poetry  with  their  doctrine.  Socrates  and 
Plato  had  not  scrupled  to  attack  Homer  and 
Hesiod ;  but  the  Stoics  and  the  other  schools  did  not 
dare  to  take  that  bold  step,  and  explained  away 
what  they  could  not  accept.  They  were  led  then  to 
find  deeper  significance  in  all  manner  of  things  on 
which  people  set  store :  in  Homer  and  Hesiod  words 
and  numbers,  visions  and  dreams.  Clearness  and 
directness  of  thought  had  passed  away  in  the  deca^ 
of  intellectual  freedom.  While  according  to  their 
strict  theory  they  required  that  life  should  be  led 
absolutely  according  to  reason,  in  practice  the 
Stoics  accommodated  their  moral  doctrine  to 
human  weakness,  and  fostered  crude  superstitions. 
They  became  the  professors  of  astrology,  of  divina- 
tion, and  of  soothsaying;  and,  upholding,  as  they 
did,  a  complete  determinism,  they  laid  great  stress 

74 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

on  the  exposition  of  celestial  influences  and  the 
interpretation  of  dreams  and  visions.  At  the  same 
time,  while  they  made  their  more  vulgar  and  irra- 
tional concessions  to  popular  ideas,  they  did  un- 
doubtedly exercise  a  bracing  moral  Influence  by 
opposing  the  sensuality,  the  self-indulgence,  and  the 
luxury  of  a  decadent  age.  Their  numerous  preach- 
ers spread  a  kind  of  ethical  culture  for  the  masses, 
not  very  different  from  the  Ethical  Culture  of  our 
own  day;  and  the  Cynics,  who  were  an  extreme  band 
of  the  school,  went  about  like  the  mediaeval  friars 
or  the  modern  apostles  of  the  simple  life,  exhorting 
the  people  to  self-restraint  and  continence,  insisting 
that  virtue  was  the  only  happiness,  and  themselves 
providing  an  example  of  reducing  material  wants 
to  their  lowest  terms. 

Between  the  Stoics  and  the  Jews  there  was  some- 
thing In  common,  but  more  of  antipathy.  Alike 
they  stood  for  a  certain  Puritanism,  and  for  the 
moral  ordering  of  hfe;  alike  they  derived  the  Cos- 
mos from  one  principle,  and  believed  In  the  exist- 
ence of  a  universal  law  of  conduct,  by  observing 
which  man  could  attain  happiness;  but  there  the 
likeness  ended.  The  Stoics'  creed  was  a  material- 
istic pantheism;  the  Jews  maintained  a  trans- 
cendental monotheism.     The  Stoics,  instead  of  set- 

75 


HELLENISM 

ting  themselves  against  popular  superstition,  al- 
lowed their  teaching  to  be  contaminated  by  It, 
became  the  champions  of  the  pagan  deities,  and, 
by  a  system  of  allegorical  Interpretation,  contrived 
to  shelter  the  many  gods  under  the  pantheistic  prin- 
ciple. The  Jews  were  rigidly  opposed  to  paganism 
and  all  its  ways,  and  refused  to  whittle  away  their 
pure  conception  of  God  by  any  concession  to  lower 
ideas.  The  Stoics  were  determlnlsts  and  rational- 
ists, and  held  that  man  must  stand  by  his  own 
strength;  the  Jews  believed  that  man  had  freedom 
of  will  and  that  the  individual  could  have  com- 
munion with  God,  and  through  God's  grace  alone 
attain  to  blessedness.  The  Stoics  denied  the  Im- 
mortality of  the  soul;  the  Jews  upheld  resu^rrectlon. 
The  Stoics  taught  that  the  universal  law  of  conduct 
was  to  be  found  in  the  study  of  nature,  but  they 
never  positively  formulated  it;  the  Jewish  law  was 
contained  In  a  revealed  code  and  an  ordered  way  of 
life  which  was  taught  to  all  the  people.  The 
Stoics  stood  for  a  cosmopolitan  civilization  which, 
while  It  was  tricked  out  with  fine  phrases  about  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  meant  in  reality  the  impure 
amalgamation  of  all  kinds  of  creeds  and  cultures. 
The  Jews  held  fast  to  their  national  traditions,  and 
fiercely  resisted  the  attempt  to  fuse  their  creed. 

76 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

The  physical  struggle  which  the  Jews  waged  with 
the  Hellenistic  peoples  was  reflected  by  the  intel- 
lectual contest  between  Judaism  and  Stoicism. 
Nevertheless  a  section  of  the  Jewish-Hellenistic 
people  was  much  influenced  by  the  Stoic  doctrine, 
and  Jewish-Hellenistic  philosophy  adopted  part  of 
the  Stoic  teaching  and  Stoic  phraseology. 

The  hostility  of  Judaism  toward  the  other  great 
post-Aristotelian  system,  the  philosophy  of  Epi- 
curus, was  more  obvious  and  more  glaring.  The 
name  Epicurus  became  a  synonym  in  the  rabbinical 
literature  of  Judaism  for  a  heretic  or  a  renegade. 
Epicureanism  has  come  to  be  associated  with  the 
low  ideal  of  pleasure-seeking  as  the  end  of  life;  but 
in  its  purer  form  its  aim  was  contentment,  and  in 
some  aspects  its  teaching  was  higher  than  that  of 
the  more  blatantly  moral  Stoicism.  Epicurus  and 
his  followers  opposed  the  popular  superstitions: 
they  maintained  that  the  gods  had  no  concern  with 
the  affairs  of  this  world,  but  formed  a  happy  society 
of  their  own,  and  man  had  neither  anything  to  ob- 
tain nor  anything  to  fear  from  them.  Man's  hap- 
piness was  to  be  found  in  the  pursuit  of  the  right 
kind  of  pleasure,  and  he  must  accept  all  that  befell 
him  with  equanimity.  The  Epicurean  creed  in  its 
6  77 


HELLENISM 

highest  expression  is  contained  in  a  Greek  couplet 
which  runs  thus : 

There  is  nothing  to  fear  in  God, 
There  is  nothing  to  feel  in  death: 
That  which  man  desires  can  be  obtained, 
That  which  man  dreads  can  be  endured. 

But  Epicureanism  was  one  of  those  systems  which, 
though  they  spring  from  lofty  conceptions  and 
profess  a  not  ignoble  aim,  are  so  disposed  toward 
human  weaknesses  that  they  are  inevitably  de- 
based in  practice,  and  become  the  buttress  of  a  de- 
generate and  degraded  outlook.  The  denial  of 
divine  interference  in  the  world  was  converted  to 
atheism;  the  wise  pursuit  of  pleasure,  which  it  re- 
garded as  the  human  end,  to  unrestrained  self-in- 
dulgence ;  its  thorough-going  materialism  In  thought 
to  thorough-going  materialism  in  life.  Hence, 
naturally  enough,  to  the  Jew  the  Epicurus,  the  fol- 
lower of  hedonism,  was  a  type  of  what  was  low  and 
godless,  what  was  essentially  and  fundamentally 
antipathetic  to  Judaism. 

Besides  the  two  new  schools  of  Stoics  and  Epicu- 
reans and  the  two  older  schools  of  Academics  and 
Peripatetics,  other  systems  of  philosophy  w^hich  had 
an  Influence  on  the  Jews  of  the  diaspora  flourished 

78 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

in  the  Hellenistic  era.  Against  the  dogmatism  of 
the  other  schools,  the  Sceptics  maintained  an  alto- 
gether critical  standpoint.  They  questioned  the 
basis  of  knowledge  through  the  senses  (which  was 
the  Epicurean  criterion)  or  through  the  reason 
(which  was  the  Stoic  standard) .  They  conducted  a 
negative  polemic  both  against  the  popular  religious 
polytheism  and  the  quasi-philosophical  theology  of 
the  schools,  and  advocated  for  themselves  a  position 
of  agnosticism.  Thus  they  performed  part  of  the 
destructive  work  of  undermining  paganism,  which 
was  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  purer  religious 
teaching. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  desire  for  a  deeper  reli- 
gious life  than  was  provided  by  the  state  cults  found 
a  philosophical  expression  in  what  is  known  as  the 
neo-Pythagorean  school.  Pythagoras,  among  the 
early  sages  of  Greece,  had  most  clearly  been  stimu- 
lated by  eastern  influences,  and  he  had  grafted  the 
eastern  longing  for  the  supernatural  on  the  Greek 
longing  for  knowledge.  He  travelled  in  Egypt, 
and,  according  to  the  Jewish  and  Christian  apolo- 
gists of  an  uncritical  and  inaccurate  age,  sojourned 
in  Palestine  and  learnt  wisdom  from  Elijah.  But, 
putting  such  myths  aside,  the  fact  remains  that  he 
approached  In  his  teaching  of  God  the  Hebraic  con- 

79 


HELLENISM 

ceptlon  of  monotheism,  and  In  his  practical  ethics 
the  Hebraic  discipline  of  life  by  a  system  of  law 
and  the  regulation  of  daily  conduct.  The  Pythago- 
rean school  achieved  no  great  prominence  during 
the  classical  period,  though  their  doctrines  entered 
as  an  element  into  the  various  Socratic  systems.  But 
when  in  the  Hellenistic  age  the  scientific  ardor  di- 
minished and  the  stimulus  of  eastern  ideas  was 
increased,  the  severe  discipline  and  the  mystical 
yearnings  which  the  brotherhood  fostered  immedi- 
ately responded  to  man's  wants.  The  more  ear- 
nest spirits,  sick  of  material  luxury  in  the  Oriental- 
ized Greek  cities  and  without  faith  in  the  attainment 
of  rational  knowledge,  attached  themselves  to  a 
school  which  preached  pure  ethics  and  the  simple 
life  and  held  out  the  hope  of  communion  with  a 
supernatural,  transcendental  power.  The  Pythag- 
oreans intensified  the  dualism  between  body  and 
soul,  which  was  characteristic  of  Greek  moral  phil- 
osophy from  the  beginning.  According  to  their 
tenets,  the  soul  existed  in  heaven  before  its  incarna- 
tion, and  the  body  was  its  prison  from  which  release 
could  only  be  won  by  a  rigorous  training.  The  true 
aim  of  man  was  thus  to  free  his  soul  by  ascetic  exer- 
cises, and  in  a  mystical  ecstasy  to  attain  to  spiritual 
bliss.      In  another  part  of  their  teaching  they  laid 

80 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

Stress  upon  the  powers  of  numbers  and  words ;  the 
elements  of  language  were  well-nigh  universally 
regarded  as  a  link  between  the  divine  and  human, 
and  numbers,  it  was  believed,  not  only  symbolized 
but  exercized  wonderful  virtues. 

The  first  century  before  the  Christian  era  has 
been  termed  the  most  unphilosophical  age  of  ancient 
times;  and  if  the  positive  dogmatism  of  the  Stoics 
and  Epicureans  was  the  typical  teaching  of  the  first 
period  of  Hellenistic  culture,  the  religious  mysticism 
of  the  neo-Pythagoreanism  was  the  typical  product 
of  its  second  stage.  Many  of  its  ideas  were 
adapted  by  the  other  schools,  and  new  combinations 
were  made  with  the  religious  systems  of  the  Ori- 
ental peoples.  It  will  be  shown  how  Judea  did 
not  escape  the  influence,  and  in  the  sect  of  the 
Essenes  we  have  probably  a  mingling  of  Jewish  and 
Pythagorean  ideas.  But  though  in  ethical  stand- 
point and  religious  yearning  the  teachings  of 
Pythagoras — both  the  genuine  and  the  apocryphal 
— reveal  something  akin  to  Judaism,  even  this  de- 
velopment of  Hellenistic  philosophy  was  antago- 
nistic to  the  Jewish  spirit.  Its  monotheism  was 
tainted  with  foreign  ideas;  the  dualism  between 
body  and  soul  led  to  a  rigorous  asceticism  which 
contrasted  with  the  sanity  and  moderation  of  the 

81 


HELLENISM 

Jewish  way  of  life ;  lastly,  its  outlook  on  society  was 
antl-natlonal  and  antl-soclal,  since  it  advocated  flight 
from  the  world  and  the  abandonment  of  civic  duty 
as  the  way  of  virtue. 

Moral  philosophy  was  part  of  the  fashionable 
equipment  of  the  Hellenistic  age ;  and  just  as  Marie 
Antoinette  and  her  court  liked  to  play  at  the  simple 
life  amid  the  pomp  and  luxury  of  Versailles,  so, 
amid  the  dissolute  and  luxurious  haunts  of  Alexan- 
dria and  Antloch,  jaded  men  and  women  loved  to 
listen  to  eulogies  on  virtue  and  diatribes  on  the  van- 
ity of  riches.  The  Stoic  and  Cynic  missionary  in  his 
thread-bare  cloak  at  the  street-corners  preached  the 
self-sufficiency  of  virtue;  the  eclectic  lecturer  on 
moral  welfare  culled  the  most  attractive  ideas  from 
all  the  sages  of  Hellas  and  the  East,  and  displayed 
them  to  an  admiring  audience.  Rhetoric  indeed 
was  the  supreme  and  most  popular  art  of  the 
Hellenistic  civilization,  and  Impregnated  every 
other  form  of  literature.  Poetry,  drama,  history, 
and  philosophy  became  rhetorical.  The  lecture- 
hall  took  the  place  of  the  market-place  and  the 
theatre  as  the  centre  of  intellectual  Intercourse,  and 
the  tract  and  the  oratorical  exercise  became  a 
standard  form  of  writing.  The  new  generation  of 
sophists  gave  their  audiences  a  superficial  acquaint- 


THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

ance  with  Hellenic  ideas  which  passed  for  philoso- 
phy. An  appearance  of  philosophical  knowledge 
and  fluency  in  the  up-to-date  theologies  were  re- 
quired of  every  man  claiming  to  be  enlightened. 
The  schools  only  affected  a  comparatively  small 
part  of  the  population,  but  the  sophists  and  rhetors 
gave  a  smattering  of  the  serious  side  of  Hellenism 
to  the  whole  of  the  upper  and  Intellectual  classes. 
The  philosophy  which  was  thus  hawked  around 
was  as  poor  an  Image  of  the  thought  of  the  genuine 
Hellas  as  the  Hellenic  cults  which  were  set  up  in 
the  cities  of  Egypt  and  Syria  were  a  poor  reflection 
of  the  national  religion  of  Athens  and  Sparta.  In 
estimating  the  attitude  of  the  Jewish  people  toward 
Greek  culture,  we  have  then  to  remember  that  the 
civilization  they  encountered  was  a  second-rate  and 
second-hand  Hellenism,  which  had  indeed  a  treas- 
ure of  artistic  and  intellectual  achievement  to  attract 
and  inspire,  but  lacked  altogether  the  eager  spirit 
that  had  created  that  treasure,  and  at  the  same  time 
was  mingled  with  all  manner  of  foreign  cults  and 
cultures — Chaldean  astrology,  Phrygian  mysticism, 
and  Egyptian  theophanies — In  such  a  way  that  its 
own  inherent  weaknesses  were  emphasized  and  ex- 
aggerated, and  its  nobler  aspects  were  hopelessly 
obscured.     We  must    beware    of    regarding    the 

83 


HELLENISM 

Struggle  between  Hebraism  and  Hellenism  in  the 
Hellenistic  age  as  a  struggle  between  a  narrow  and 
intolerant  monotheism,  on  the  one  hand,  and  a 
broad  enlightenment  and  Intellectual  activity,  on 
the  other.  Rather  was  it  a  struggle  between  an 
established  national-religious  culture,  with  a  high 
moral  standard  and  large  human  aspirations,  and  a 
confused  amalgam  of  cultures,  w^ith  a  low  moral 
standard,  declining  intellectual  grasp,  and  vague 
cosmopolitan  professions. 


84 


CHAPTER  III 

HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE  TILL  THE 
DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  TEMPLE 

Judea  was  surrounded  by  Alexander  the  Great 
and  his  successors  with  a  girdle  of  Greek  cities. 
Along  the  coast-lands  of  ancient  Phlllstia  on 
the  west,  and  on  the  further  side  of  the  Jordan  on 
the  east,  these  cities  formed  a  close  and  well-knit 
chain;  while  to  the  north,  in  the  country  of  the 
Samaritans  and  in  Galilee,  Samaria,  Sepphoris, 
Neapolis,  and  Scythopolis  were  inhabited  by  a 
mixed  multitude,  which  was  not  slow  to  adopt  the 
manners  and  cults  of  the  dominant  Hellene.  On 
the  south,  where  the  desert  ended,  lay  the  Hellen- 
ized  kingdom  of  Egypt  with  which  Judea  was  in 
constant  contact.  Thus  the  little  Jewish  territory 
was  as  a  rock  around  which  there  beat  the  waves 
of  the  Hellenistic  sea.  Politically  it  formed  part 
of  a  Hellenistic  kingdom  from  the  time  that  it  fell 
into  Alexander's  possession  in  332  B.  C.  E.  till  the 
final  victory  of  the  Maccabeans,  nearly  two  hundred 
years  later. 

85 


HELLENISM 

After  the  death  of  Alexander,  says  the  Hebrew 
chronicler,  "  his  servants  bare  rule,  every  one  in  his 
place  ....  and  evils  were  multiplied  on 
the  earth."  '  Palestine  fell  to  Ptolemy,  the  ruler 
of  Egypt;  his  dynasty  had  frequently  to  fight  for  it 
with  the  Seleucid  rulers  of  Syria,  but  they  kept  pos- 
session for  one  hundred  years.  Of  the  inner  history 
of  the  Jewish  people  in  Palestine  during  the  period 
we  know  scarcely  anything  directly.  Josephus 
fails  us  for  this  time,  and  we  must  perforce  be  con- 
tent with  conjecture  and  inference.  The  coast- 
road,  which  ran  from  Egypt  to  Syria  along  the 
plain  of  Sharon  and  across  the  vale  of  Jezreel  or 
Esdraelon,  was  the  great  highway  of  the  Greek 
armies;  and  the  plain  itself  was  one  of  the  great 
battlefields.  Hence  the  Jewish  people  as  a  whole 
must  have  come  into  frequent  touch  with  Greek 
soldiery  and  merchants.  At  the  same  time  the 
upper  classes  assimilated  more  deliberately  the 
culture  of  the  surrounding  cities.  The  way  to 
success  in  public  life  lay  through  imitation  of  Greek 
manners,  and  the  temptation  to  conformity  was 
exceedingly  powerful.  When  the  darkness  is 
illuminated  by  the  record  of  the  Maccabean 
struggle,  told  soberly  and  sincerely  in  the  First  Book 
of  the  Maccabees,  and  oratorically  in  the  epitome 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

of  the  history  of  Jason,  which  is  known  as  the 
Second  Book,  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the 
nation  ranged  into  two  parties :  an  advanced  Hellen- 
izing  section  of  aristocrats,  and  a  stubborn  core  of 
the  people,  bitterly  opposed  to  Hellenism,  and  sin- 
cerely loyal  to  the  Jewish  law. 

The  Hellenistic  influence  had  found  its  way 
gradually  from  the  outward  activities  of  national 
life  to  its  fundamental  ideas.  As  early  as  300 
B.  C.  E.,  Hecataeus,  a  Greek  historian,  speaks  of 
Jews  who,  by  mingling  with  the  Persians  and  Mace- 
donians, had  fallen  away  from  their  traditional 
wisdom.'  The  Olympian  gods  and  the  myths 
about  them  were  rapidly  acclimatized  in  the  Greek 
cities.  The  story  of  Perseus  and  Andromeda  was 
located  at  Joppa,  and  Heracles,  who  had  a  Phoeni- 
cian origin  and  preserved  in  the  Greek  mythology 
the  reputation  of  a  great  traveller,  found  a  new 
kingdom  in  the  East.  At  Tyre  and  at  Philadelphia 
(the  old  Rabbath  Ammon,  east  of  the  Jordan)  he 
was  worshipped  as  the  chief  deity,  and  games  were 
instituted  in  his  honor.  The  Samaritans  contrived 
to  associate  him  with  the  Bible  story  and  to  prove 
his  derivation  from  Esau ; '  and  the  Second  Book  of 
the  Maccabees  narrates  how  the  Graecizing  high 
priest  Jason  sent  a  deputation  to  Tyre  from  Jerusa- 

87 


HELLENISM 

lem  with  an  offering  for  the  quinquennial  games  of 
the  Greek  god.  The  worship  of  Astarte  was  centred 
at  Anthedon,  near  Gaza ;  Dionysus  was  the  patron 
deity  of  Scythopolls,  which  was  called  Nysa  after 
him,  and  Pan  of  the  city  of  Panlas,  erected  by  the 
sources  of  the  Jordan.  The  Greek  cities  Issued 
coins  on  which  were  stamped  the  figure  of  their  pro- 
tecting god  or  some  religious  symbol  connected  with 
the  town ;  and  as  these  coins  were  the  only  currency 
of  Palestine,  the  Jews  acquired  some  acquaintance 
by  their  agency  with  Greek  religious  Ideas. 

Palestinian  commerce,  also,  passed  largely 
through  the  Greek  coast  cities.  The  Phoenicians 
of  old  by  their  trading  journeys  had  brought  the 
ideas  and  the  inventions  of  the  East  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Hellenes  in  the  West,  and  now 
the  elegant  manners  and  material  civilization  of 
the  West  were  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Jews 
by  the  Greek  merchants.  The  large  Greek  vocabu- 
lary which  passed  Into  the  Jewish  speech,  and  found 
a  permanent  place  there,  contains  a  number  of 
words  of  commerce,  of  the  common  objects  of  trade 
and  of  apparel,  of  furniture  and  decoration,  and 
of  administration  and  law.  Commerce  brought 
with  it  an  Introduction  of  the  arts  Into  the  country. 

88 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

After  the  Restoration  from  Babylon  the  Jewish 
way  of  life  had  been  solemn  and  sober,  lacking  in 
grace  and  renned  pleasures;  but  under  the  Influence 
of  the  new  civilization,  the  arts  of  building  and 
music  made  their  way  into  Judea.  To  the  plastic 
arts,  however,  because  of  their  association  with 
pagan  mythology,  and  to  the  games  and  athletic 
contests,  which  were  made  the  occasion  for  the 
lower  pagan  ceremonies,  the  Jewish  consciousness 
offered  constant  resistance.  It  was  marked  as  a 
special  outrage  of  the  Hellenlzing  party  in  the  time 
of  Antlochus  Epiphanes  that  the  priests  set  up  a 
gymnasium  and  theatre  in  Jerusalem.* 

The  book  of  Ben  SIra,  which  Is  an  invaluable 
record  of  Jewish  social  life  in  the  third  and  begin- 
ning of  the  second  centuries,  illustrates  the  intro- 
duction of  a  more  elegant  life  and  a  growing 
appreciation  of  art.  Thus  the  writer  praises  music  : 
"  Pour  not  out  words  when  there  Is  a  musician,  and 
show  not  forth  wisdom  out  of  time;  a  concert  of 
music  at  a  banquet  of  wine  is  as  a  signet  of  carbuncle 
set  in  gold.  As  a  signet  of  emerald  set  in  gold,  so 
is  the  melody  of  music  with  pleasant  wine."  '  The 
book  of  Daniel,  again,  which  dates  from  the  second 
century  B.  C.  E.,  mentions  a  number  of  musical 


HELLENISM 

instruments,  unknown  In  other  parts  of  the  Bible: 
the  cornet,  sackbut,  and  psaltery,  and  two  of  them 
with  Greek  names." 

Ben  Sira's  moralizing  about  the  honor  due  to 
the  physician  points  to  the  existence  in  his  day  of  a 
regular  medical  profession.  It  was  still  necessary 
to  recommend  the  use  of  skilled  service;  and  there 
were  doubtless  those  who  looked  with  suspicion  on 
the  introduction  of  science  for  the  healing  of  dis- 
ease, lest  it  should  impair  faith.  The  Jewish 
moralist  seeks  to  conciliate  the  two  outlooks : ' 
"  Honour  a  physician,"  he  says,  "  with  the  honour 
due  to  him,  for  the  uses  which  ye  may  have  of  him. 
For  the  Lord  hath  created;  for  of  the  Most  High 
cometh  healing,  and  he  shall  receive  honour  of  the 
king.  The  skill  of  the  physician  shall  lift  up  his 
head,  in  the  sight  of  the  great  men  he  shall  be  ad- 
mired. The  Lord  hath  created  medicines  out  of  the 
earth,  and  he  that  is  wise  will  not  abhor  them.  .  .  . 
My  son,  in  thy  sickness  be  not  negligent,  but  pray 
unto  the  Lord,  and  He  will  make  thee  whole.  Leave 
off  from  sin,  and  order  thine  hands  aright  and 
cleanse  thy  heart  from  all  wickedness.  .  .  .  Then 
give  place  to  the  physician,  for  the  Lord  hath  cre- 
ated him." 

90 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

It  Is  a  moot  question  whether  the  Palestinian 
literature  of  the  third  century  bears  traces  of  the 
infusion  of  the  deeper  side  of  Hellenism.  Some 
scholars  have  detected  It  In  the  two  books  of  the 
Canon  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  written  at 
this  period,  Eccleslastes  and  the  Song  of  Solomon." 
A  passage  in  the  latter  bears  a  remarkable  corre- 
spondence with  a  verse  in  one  of  the  Idylls  of 
Theocritus,  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Alexan- 
drian poets,  and  some  see  in  its  wealth  of  sensuous 
imagery  a  non-Hebraic  influence.  But  the  corre- 
spondence with  Theocritus  may  be  due  to  an  Ori- 
ental source  common  to  the  two  poets,  and  the  lack 
of  any  clear  order  In  the  thought  and  the  luscious 
imagery  of  the  Hebrew  song  are  alien  to  the 
Hellenic  spirit.  As  regards  the  book  of  the 
Preacher,  some  have  seen  a  reproduction  of  Greek 
words  and  phrases  in  certain  novel  Hebrew  forms; 
while  the  well-known  passage:  "  Two  are  better 
than  one.  .  .  .  For  if  they  fall,  the  one  will  lift  up 
his  fellow,"  '  corresponds  with  a  maxim  of  Homer. 
The  sceptical  attitude,  which  runs  through  the 
whole  book,  and  the  intellectual  standpoint  of  Its 
author  more  notably  reflect  intercourse  with  outside 
culture  and  the  indefinite  influence  of  the  Greek 
atmosphere.     That    Palestinian    Jews    were    ac- 

91 


HELLENISM 

quainted  with  the  Greek  literature  of  the  time  does 
not  depend  on  mere  probability,  but  is  vouched  by 
several  pieces  of  direct  testimony.  The  books  of 
the  Maccabees  state  that  some  of  the  loyal 
Hassideans  could  write  as  well  as  read  Greek;  and 
the  Hellenistic  historian  Eupolemus,  who  must  have 
lived  during  the  second  century,  speaks  of  the  Greek 
version  of  the  Scriptures  as  well  known  to  his  coun- 
trymen. 

The  legends  which  recount  the  making  of  the 
Septuagint  Version  by  seventy  sages  sent  by  the  high 
priest  In  Jerusalem  to  Ptolemy  in  Alexandria  are 
certainly  apocryphal;  but  it  Is  significant  that 
pseudo-Aristeas,  who  probably  wrote  not  later  than 
at  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  B.  C.  E.,  should 
have  conceived  such  a  story,  and  that  the  Talmud 
also  recounts  the  sending  of  sages  to  write  the  Law 
In  Greek.  The  first  Palestinian  Jew  recorded  as 
bearing  a  Greek  name  is  Antigonus  of  Soco,  who 
appears  in  the  Ethics  of  the  Fathers  "  as  the  imme- 
diate successor  of  Simon  the  Just  (i.  e.,  about  250) , 
In  the  headship  of  the  Great  Synagogue.  In  the 
saying  ascribed  to  him,  "  Be  not  as  servants  who 
minister  to  their  masters  for  the  sake  of  reward,'^ 
Greek  Influence  has  been  traced."  The  introduc- 
tion of  the  knowledge  of  Greek  was  not,  however, 

92 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

the  danger  which  aroused  the  people  to  bitter  re- 
sistance against  Greek  aggression.  Probably  the 
scribes  and  the  strict  followers  of  the  Law,  known 
as  the  Hasidim  (the  Pious  Ones)  and  afterwards  as 
Perushim  (the  Separatists),  were  from  the  outset 
antagonistic  to  the  Greek  language  and  Greek  ideas ; 
but  the  gradual  process  of  blending  the  foreign 
culture  with  the  Jewish  outlook  might  have  gone  on 
for  long,  and  might  in  the  end  have  sapped  Jewish 
Individuality,  had  It  not  been  for  the  attempt  to 
force  a  cruder  and  more  vulgar  Hellenism  on  the 
masses  of  the  people. 

Posterity  loves  to  pillory  an  individual  for  an  evil 
of  gradual  growth;  and  the  individual  upon  whom 
the  odium  of  this  attempt  is  regularly  cast  is 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the  Seleucid  emperor  who 
reigned  from  175-166  B.  C.  E.  Yet  he  was  less 
the  promoter  than  the  instrument  of  the  policy 
which  had  its  roots  In  the  corruption  of  a  part  of  the 
Jewish  people.  Nations,  it  has  been  said,  always 
touch  at  their  summits;  and  the  aristocracies  of  all 
countries  have  a  tendency  to  share  common  hopes 
and  a  common  outlook.  More  especially  when 
there  is  one  dominant  civilization,  the  ruling  classes 
of  smaller  nationalities  are  prone  to  desert  their 
own  culture  for  that  of  the  larger  world.  The 
7  93 


HELLENISM 

tendency  asserted  Itself  in  the  priestly  caste  of  the 
Jewish  people,  who,  if  no  longer  the  popular  lead- 
ers, were  the  hereditary  holders  of  power  under  the 
Ptolemies.  The  high-priesthood  had  descended  to 
the  family  of  Onias,  and  a  branch  of  their  family, 
the  Tobiades,  sought  by  Ingratiating  themselves 
with  the  Egyptian  sovereign  to  carve  out  for  them- 
selves a  Hellenistic  principate  in  Palestine.  They 
built  palaces  in  the  Greek  style,  and  they  fostered 
Greek  influences,  until  finally,  over-reaching  them- 
selves, they  tried  to  foist  Greek  religious  cults  on  the 
community.  We  may  refer  to  them  the  words 
In  Daniel :  "  The  children  of  the  violent  among  thy 
people  shall  lift  themselves  up  to  establish  the 
vision."  "  In  the  time  of  Antlochus,  the  faithful 
high  priest  Onias  III  drove  them  out  of  Jerusalem 
because  of  their  Graecizing  ways,  and  then  matters 
hurried  to  a  crisis.'* 

The  Ptolemies  had  observed  the  tradition  of  not 
interfering  with  the  religion  of  their  various  sub- 
jects; but  when  Palestine  passed  at  the  end  of  the 
second  century  B.  C.  E.  into  the  power  of  the 
Seleucids,  the  statecraft  was  soon  changed.  The 
conqueror  of  the  country,  Antiochus  III,  main- 
tained the  former  liberty,  and,  according  to  Jo- 
sephus,"  he  even  extended  fresh  privileges  to  the 

94 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

Jewish  community  at  his  capital  at  Antioch.  But 
his  son  Antlochus,  surnamed  Epiphanes,  usurping 
the  throne  which  belonged  aright  to  his  nephew, 
manifested  a  different  temperament.  The  Se- 
leucid  empire  was  tottering  from  the  blows  which 
it  had  received  in  disastrous  wars  with  Rome,  and 
Antiochus  conceived  the  idea  of  strengthening  it 
by  increasing  its  homogeneity.  The  Jews  were 
the  one  element  among  his  subjects  who  resisted 
the  assimilation  of  Hellenistic  culture ;  their  coun- 
try lay  on  the  outposts  of  his  empire,  and  he  deemed 
it  desirable  to  make  them  like  the  remainder. 
The  aspirations  of  the  Hellenizing  Jewish  aris- 
tocracy coincided  with  his  plans.  One  of  the 
priestly  family,  Jason,  to  satisfy  his  private  ambi- 
tions, led  the  king  to  believe  that  the  Hellenizing 
process  might  be  carried  through  without  difficulty, 
and  received  the  appointment  of  high  priest  in  place 
of  the  loyal  Onias  III,  who  had  resisted  the  dese- 
cration of  the  temple.  The  king  gave  him  authority 
"  to  set  up  a  place  for  exercise  for  the  training  of 
the  youth  in  the  fashion  of  the  heathen,  and  to  write 
them  of  Jerusalem  by  the  name  of  Antiochians."  " 
A  section  of  the  priests  was  ready  enough  to  fol- 
low his  lead;  they  neglected  the  temple  worship, 
and  took  part  in  the  sports  of  the  gymnasium ;  "  they 

95 


HELLENISM 

made  themselves  unclrcumcised,  and  were  sold  to 
do  mischief."  "  The  Greek  hat — the  petasos — 
was  seen  about  the  streets,  and  Antiochus  himself 
visited  the  renovated  Antioch  Hierosolyma,  as 
Jerusalem  was  to  be  called,  and  was  splendidly  re- 
ceived by  his  liege.  Envoys  were  sent  to  Tyre  to 
contribute  to  the  sacrifices  to  Heracles,  but  they  had 
scruples  on  the  way,  and  diverted  the  money  to  the 
less  idolatrous  purpose  of  providing  ships  of  war." 
The  loyal  party  among  the  priests  went  into  exile 
in  Egypt;  and  Onias  III  was  murdered,  according 
to  some  accounts  at  Antioch,  and  according  to  others 
at  Jerusalem. 

The  insolence  of  the  Hellenizers  was  not  yet  com- 
plete ;  and  a  baser  priest  than  Jason  was  found,  one 
Menelaus,  who,  outbidding  his  rival  in  promises  of 
evil-doing,  received  the  royal  support  in  his  place, 
and  proceeded  to  stamp  out,  as  he  thought,  the 
embers  of  Judaism.  The  sanctuary  at  Jerusa- 
lem was  converted  into  a  temple  of  Zeus  Olympios, 
and  the  Samaritan  temple  on  mount  Gerizim,  with 
the  approval  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  place,  became 
a  temple  of  Zeus  Xenios.  All  manner  of  abomina- 
tions were  set  up  in  the  sanctuary;  the  observance 
of  the  sabbath  and  festivals  were  forbidden,  the 
people  were  brought  by  constraint  to  eat  of  the 

96 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

sacrifices  on  the  birthday  of  the  king,  who  had  pro- 
claimed his  own  divinity,  and  on  the  day  of  the 
feast  of  Bacchus  they  were  compelled  to  go  in  pro- 
cession carrying  branches  of  ivy."  Throughout 
the  country  the  Jews  were  compelled  to  adopt 
paganism  and  partake  of  heathen  sacrifices,  and  the 
penalty  of  death  was  prescribed  for  men,  women, 
or  children  who  refused.  The  way  had  been  pre- 
pared by  Hellenlzing  Jews  and  conciliating  pagans 
who,  by  a  bastard  kind  of  comparative  religious 
science.  Identified  the  Jewish  God  with  Dionysus 
Sabazlus  or  with  Zeus.  But  both  the  Hellenlzing 
Jews  and  the  royal  Inquisitor  had  miscalculated 
the  spirit  of  the  Jewish  people.  In  reply  to  perse- 
cution the  Hassldeans  showed  a  temper  which  up 
to  that  time  had  no  parallel  either  In  their  own 
or  In  any  other  history:  they  were  willing  to 
die  for  their  religious  beliefs,  and  to  submit  to  any 
torture  rather  than  be  disloyal  to  their  traditional 
Law.  The  readiness  to  give  up  life  for  a  faith,  for 
something  spiritual  and  Immaterial,  was  a  thing  of 
which  the  Greeks  had  not  dreamt.  It  marked  the 
triumph  of  the  Hebraic  principle,  and  It  was  the 
measure  of  the  advance  of  the  Hellenizers. 

The  heroic  struggles  of  the  Maccabean  brothers 
converted  the  passive  resistance  of  the  Hasidim 

97 


HELLENISM 

into  the  rising  of  a  people  In  defence  of  its  national 
and  religious  existence.  By  his  exertions  Judas 
saved  his  country  from  tyranny,  and  by  his  example 
he  saved  civilization  from  submersion  by  a  second- 
rate  Hellenism.  In  fact,  the  Maccabean  victories 
mark  a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  culture;  it 
ushers  in,  as  it  were,  a  reversal  of  the  movement 
begun  by  the  victory  of  the  Greeks  over  the  Persians 
at  Marathon  and  Salamls.  Hitherto  Greek  in- 
fluence on  the  East  had  been  dominant  and  ag- 
gressive; now  a  people  of  the  Orient  began  to 
impose  Its  Ideas  on  the  West.  The  Jews  had  been 
confronted  violently  with  Hellenism  In  Its  de- 
cadence; they  had  realized  its  degradation  without 
having  experience  of  its  finer  aspects;  they  had 
measured  their  strength  with  it,  and  found  it  want- 
ing. Henceforth  they  were  aggressive  and  mili- 
tant, more  fully  conscious  of  their  mission  as  a 
chosen  people,  and  determined  not  only  to  resist 
the  encroachment  of  foreign  ideas,  but  to  spread 
their  loftier  doctrine  for  the  uplifting  of  humanity. 
The  Maccabean  triumph  was  followed  by  both 
a  political  and  spiritual  awakening  of  the  nation : 
the  brothers  redeemed  for  a  century  not  only  Judea, 
but  almost  the  whole  of  Palestine  from  the  Hellenic 
dominance.     Judas,  Jonathan,  and  Simon  in  turn, 

98 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

and  after  them  John  Hyrcanus  and  Alexander 
Jannseus,  carried  the  war  against  paganism  to  the 
east  of  Jordan  and  to  the  north  of  Samaria:  the 
Idumeans,  the  Itureans,  and  the  Galileans  were 
compelled  to  adopt  the  victorious  creed;  the  Greek 
cities  were  in  many  cases  subjugated,  in  all  deprived 
of  their  power.  Israel  conquered  anew  the  Holy 
Land;  and  it  is  related  with  special  pride  that 
Simon  "  captured  Joppa  for  an  haven,  and  made  an 
entrance  to  the  isles  of  the  sea,  and  enlarged  the 
bounds  of  his  nation."  "*  From  this  first  Jewish 
port  Jewish  traders  went  out  to  carry  Jewish  teach- 
ing even  to  the  strongholds  and  the  cradle  of 
Hellenism.  The  danger  of  the  domination  of  the 
vulgar  idolatry  of  the  Hellenized  peoples  over 
monotheism  was  once  for  all  removed;  and  the  na- 
tion, exultant  in  their  strength,  confirmed  in  their 
devotion  to  the  Law;  and  burning  with  a  desire  to 
spread  their  teaching,  became  sovereign  over  the 
Holy  Land  and  powerful  beyond  it. 

Spiritually,  one  of  the  immediate  effects  of  the 
Maccabean  deliverance  was  to  stimulate  the  prose- 
lytizing activity  of  the  Jews  wherever  they  were 
settled.  We  shall  deal  in  the  next  chapter  with  the 
missionary  movement  in  the  diaspora,  but  the  same 
feeling  was  manifested,   though  less  strongly,  In 

99 


HELLENISM 

Palestine.  Palestinian  literature  of  the  first 
century  B.  C.  E.,  such  as  it  is,  has  traces  of  the 
missionary  ardor;  and  the  universaHsItc  conscious- 
ness appears  repeatedly  in  the  apocalyptic  books, 
which  at  this  period  of  seething  hopes  and  fears 
gave  expression  to  popular  wishes.  Of  the 
Messiah  it  is  said  in  the  Psalms  of  Solomon :  "  He 
shall  make  the  peoples  and  the  Gentiles  serve  him 
under  his  yoke,  he  shall  glorify  the  Lord  by  sub- 
mission of  all  the  earth  "  ;  and  in  the  Testaments  of 
the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  the  writer  speaks  of  "  the 
light  of  the  Law  which  was  given  to  lighten  every 
man.""  We  read  in  the  Book  of  Tobit:  "All 
nations  shall  turn  and  fear  the  Lord  truly,  leaving 
their  idols";  and  the  fourth  oracle  of  the  Sibyl, 
which  many  scholars  think  to  have  sprung  from 
Palestine,  foretells  the  coming  world-wide  triumph 
of  Israel:  "  Every  land  and  every  sea  shall  be  full 
of  them."  The  Gospel  of  Matthew,  in  a  later 
epoch,  speaks  of  the  Pharisees  who  "  scour  sea  and 
land  to  make  a  proselyte."  " 

Moreover,  the  scanty  rabbinic  records  of  the 
times  bear  witness  to  the  accession  of  converts; 
Shemaiah  and  Abtalion,  the  heads  of  the  schools 
at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  were  such;  and 
Schurer    identifies    them    with    the    Sameas    and 

100 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

Pollion  mentioned  by  Josephus."  Many  of  the 
sayings  of  Hlllel,  who  was  the  head  of  the  Sanhe- 
drln  after  them,  have  reference  to  proselytes: 
his  famous  summary  of  the  Law  in  the  golden  rule 
was  evoked  by  the  question  of  a  would-be  convert. 
The  arrangement  of  the  temple — the  central  shrine 
of  the  whole  people — bore  witness  to  the  large 
hopes  and  the  universal  outlook  of  the  Jews.  The 
expectation  that  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  would  be 
realized,  and  all  the  nations  would  come  up  to  pray 
on  the  mount  of  Jerusalem,  was  symbolized  by 
the  court  of  the  Gentiles,  which  formed  the  outer- 
most area  of  the  sanctuary.  Josephus  says  that  the 
altar  was  holy  to  all  Greeks  and  barbarians  as  well 
as  to  Jews;"  and  offerings  were  received  from 
proselytes  who  were  allowed  to  come  up  to  the  great 
festivals !  ^  While  in  some  aspects  the  temple 
worship  was  national  and  exclusive,  in  others  it  was 
cosmopolitan  and  universal.  Inscriptions  and  di- 
rections in  the  Greek  language  were  called  for  by 
the  presence  at  the  festivals  of  embassies  from  the 
Jewish  communities  In  the  diaspora,  for  whom 
Greek  was  the  native  tongue.  The  seals  presented 
to  donors  of  the  offerings  were  inscribed  In  the 
popular  Aramaic;  but  the  chests  for  the  money 
contributions  were  marked  in  Greek,  because  only 

101 


HELLENISM 

the  officials  who  were  conversant  with  the  general 
language  of  civilization  were  concerned  with 
them." 

Yet,  If  one  outcome  of  the  national  victory  was 
to  foster  the  missionary  spirit,  and  thus  indirectly 
to  bring  Palestinian  Jewry  into  close  touch  with  the 
Hellenistic  peoples,  a  more  direct  result  was  to 
strengthen  the  popular  feeling  against  the  infusion 
of  Hellenistic  culture.  The  struggle  had  been 
essentially  one  of  conflicting  civilizations,  and 
Judaism  had  proved  its  inward  force.  After  the 
establishment  of  the  Maccabean  dynasty,  the 
Jewish  people  In  Palestine  were  divided  into  three 
sects,  or,  one  should  rather  say,  two  sections  and  one 
sect:  The  Pharisees,  the  Sadducees,  and  the 
Essenes.  The  Essenes  are  a  sect  properly  speak- 
ing, that  is,  a  community  separated  from  the  main 
body  of  the  people,  with  a  way  of  life  and  tradi- 
tions peculiar  to  itself.  The  Sadducees  and  Phari- 
sees are  half  political  and  half  religious  parties. 
The  Pharisees,  who  were  known  among  themselves 
as  onnn  or  associates — one  may  compare  the  name 
Friends  by  which  the  members  of  the  Quaker 
community  know  each  other — were  the  successors 
of  the  Hasidim  who  had  formed  the  backbone  of 
the    resistance    to   the    Greek   persecution.     They 

102 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

represented  politically  the  party  of  the  people  which 
desired  the  Jewish  rulers  to  refrain  from  interfer- 
ence in  foreign  affairs,  and  spiritually  the  Hebraic 
principle,  which  stood  for  the  development  of  Jew- 
ish tradition  on  Its  own  lines  and  for  separation 
from  all  denationalizing  influence.     Positively  they 
were  the  upholders  and  expanders  of  the  tradition, 
and  negatively  they  were  the  opponents  of  alien 
ideas.    They  formulated  a  progressive  and  CathoHc 
Judaism,  rooted  in  the  observance  of  the  Law,  and 
continually  developing  to  meet  new  needs  and  new 
thought,  but  keeping  itself  pure  from  admixture 
with  non-Jewish  conceptions. 

Over  against  them  the  Sadducees,  so  called 
probably  after  the  priestly  house  of  the  Zadokltes, 
were  the  aristocratic  party,  which  politically  cher- 
ished ambitions  to  play  a  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
East,  and  spiritually  was  for  narrowing  Judaism 
to  a  fixed  creed  contained  in  the  Bible  and  to  a 
rigid  conservative  Law.  According  to  Josephus, 
they  were  the  party  of  the  rich,"  and  it  is  likely 
that  they  are  the  *'  proud  Jews  "  attacked  in  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon."  They  included  a  large 
part  of  the  priestly  caste,  and  they  inherited,  to  a 
certain  degree,  the  outlook  of  the  former  Hellen- 
ists.    The  analogy  which  Josephus  draws  between 

103 


HELLENISM 

Pharisees  and  Stoics  Is  shallow  and  fallacious;  In  . 
truth,  from  what  we  know  of  their  opinions,  the 
Sadducees  may  more  reasonably  be  compared  with 
that  Greek  school.  They  were  essentially  mate- 
rialists: they  did  not  share  the  Messianic  hope  of 
the  people,  and  put  their  trust  In  reason;  their  self- 
reliance,  their  rigidity  In  enforcing  the  letter  of 
the  rabbinical  law,  and  their  denial  of  the  resur- 
rection "  reflect  the  spirit  of  the  Stoic.  The  Jewish 
aristocracy  In  the  Maccabean  kingdom  continued 
to  Imbibe  the  outside  culture  of  the  day,  and  thus 
became  estranged  from  the  general  populace,  till, 
finally,  It  lost  touch  with  the  national  feeling. 
From  a  party  the  Sadducees  became  a  sect,  and 
eventually  a  name  of  reproach.  With  the  de- 
struction of  the  temple  they  disappeared  as  a 
poHtlcal  force;  and  the  Sadducees  referred  to  in 
later  rabbinical  writings  are  Identical  with  Gnostics 
and  other  heretical  groups." 

The  traces  of  Hellenistic  Influence  on  the 
Essenes  are  clearer,  though  the  Influence  was  de- 
rived from  that  development  of  the  Greek  spirit 
which  was  in  some  ways  akin  to  Hebraism.  The 
Philonic  author  of  the  tract  ''  That  every  good 
man  Is  free  "  associates  their  name  with  the  Greek 
Hoslos   (pious)  ; '"    but  with  more  probability  its 

104 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

origin  is  to  be  sought  in  the  Syriac  root  son 
(pious).  Kohler/'  on  the  other  hand,  connects 
the  word  with  the  Hebrew  D^^^iyn  (the  silent  ones), 
who  appear  in  the  Mishnah  as  a  body  of  secret 
saints."  The  derivation  is  fathered  by  a  wish 
to  support  his  theory  that  the  Essenes  may  be 
identified  with  the  saints,  the  strictest  of  the 
Pharisees  of  whom  we  hear  much  in  rabbinic  lit- 
erature. But  our  only  direct  authorities  for  the 
Essene  tenets  " — Josephus  and  "  Philo  "  among 
Jews,  and  Hippolytus  and  Eusebius  among  Chris- 
tians— consistently  describe  them  as  a  sect  forming 
an  isolated  branch  of  Jewry,  and  playing  no  part  in 
the  national  life.  Josephus  says  that  they  were 
excluded  from  the  temple  service,  and  had  secret 
books  of  their  own.  It  is  therefore  open  to  doubt 
whether  they  can  be  regarded  as  the  successors  of 
the  pre-Maccabean  Hasidim,  and  Identified  with 
the  most  pious  of  the  Jewish  people.  They  are 
more  likely  "  the  saints  who  waste  the  world  "  re- 
ferred to  In  the  Talmud,  who  practised  austerities 
to  the  extent  of  not  taking  part  In  the  duties  of 
social  life.  The  statements  as  to  their  numbers 
point  to  a  small  community,  segregated  from  the 
general  population;  *'  Philo  "  speaks  of  four  thou- 

10.5 


HELLENISM 

sand  living  in  Syria  and  Palestine,"  and  Josephus 
gives  similar  testimony." 

They  were  a  body  of  devotees,  living  either  in 
the  wilderness  or  in  special  villages,  under  very 
strict  and  peculiar  discipline;  they  rejected  blood 
sacrifices,  fostered  a  high  moral  standard,  and 
eschewed  sensual  pleasures  to  the  point  of  asceti- 
cism. In  their  ascetic  practices,  as  "  Philo  "  did 
not  fail  to  see,  they  were  false  to  the  teachings  of 
Judaism.  Their  doctrine  was  distinguished  by  a 
pronounced  dualism  of  body  and  soul.  They 
taught  that  bodies  are  corruptible,  and  that  the 
matter  of  which  they  are  made  is  not  permanent. 
But  the  souls  are  immortal,  and  endure  forever. 
They  are  formed  of  the  most  subtle  air,  and  are 
enclosed  in  bodies  as  in  prisons,  into  which  they 
are  drawn  by  a  certain  material  enticement;  when 
they  are  set  free  from  the  flesh,  they  rejoice  at  the 
release  from  a  long  bondage,  and  mount  upwards.** 

The  Christian  Hippolytus  adds  an  account  of 
their  doctrine  of  resurrection,  on  which  they  laid 
particular  emphasis."  They  believe  that  the  flesh 
will  rise  again  and  be  immortal  like  the  soul,  which, 
separated  from  the  body,  enters  a  place  of  fragrant 
air  and  radiant  light  there  to  enjoy  rest.  Hippol- 
ytus is  at  pains  to  point  out  that  the  notions  of 

106 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

resurrection  were  original  with  the  Essenes,  and 
together  with  other  doctrines  were  appropriated 
from  them  by  the  Greeks;  he  asserts  also  that  their 
ascetic  life  is  older  than  that  of  any  other  nation, 
and  that  Pythagoras  and  the  Stoics  borrowed  from 
them.  The  Christian  standpoint  was  that  all  good 
ideas  which  were  championed  by  the  Church  were 
adopted  by  the  Greeks ;  but  it  is  suggestive  that  both 
he  and  Josephus  connect  the  Essene  teachings  with 
those  of  Greek  schools. 

Unfortunately,  no  extant  work  can  be  definitely 
attributed  to  an  Essene ;  some  have  so  ascribed  the 
book  of  Jubilees,  others  the  Testament  of  Job, 
others  the  greater  part  of  the  apocalyptic  litera- 
ture; but  all  this  is  guess-work.  Yet,  from  the 
descriptions  of  the  Christian  historians  and  the 
Jewish  apologists,  the  influence  of  foreign  thought 
on  their  doctrines  is  manifest,  and  the  first  Jew  of 
modern  times  who  studied  Hellenistic-Jewish  lit- 
erature, Azariah  dei  Rossi,  said  they  were  Greek- 
speaking  Jews."  The  probable  conclusion  is  that 
the  dualism  of  the  Essenes  is  due  to  an  interchange 
of  thought  with  the  neo-Pythagorcan  school, 
which  was  actively  missionary  in  the  second  and 
first  centuries  B.  C.  E.  It  may  be  that  other 
foreign  influences  from  Persia  and  even  from  India 

107 


HELLENISM 

entered  Into  their  system,  and  that  they  represent 
an  early  example  of  a  large  religious  syncretism. 
But  the  correspondence  with  the  Hellenistic  Puri- 
tans, who  acknowledged  Pythagoras  as  their 
master,  stands  out  prominently.  The  Essenes 
share  with  them  not  only  the  dualistic  doctrine  of 
body  and  soul,  but  the  striving  for  bodily  purity, 
the  practice  of  ablutions,  the  rejection  of  blood 
offerings,  the  encouragement  of  celibacy,  the  belief 
in  prophetic  powers,  the  striving  after  ecstacies  and 
mystical  visions,  and,  lastly,  the  divorce  of  religion 
from  national  and  social  life.  At  the  same  time 
the  Jewish  character  is  manifested  in  their  close 
attachment  to  the  Mosaic  law,  and  notably  in  their 
strict  observance  of  the  sabbath  and  of  the  feast  of 
Pentecost,  to  which  they  attributed  peculiar 
holiness. 

It  is  likely  that  they  were  a  body  which  sprang 
up  under  Greek  influence  in  the  second  century, 
during  the  bitter  days  before  the  strength  of  the 
Jewish  revival  against  Hellenism  had  asserted 
itself,  having  as  their  object  the  realization  of  an 
ascetic  idea  of  life  and  importing  the  pessimistic 
Greek  religiosity  into  Palestine.  They  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  possibility  of  combining  Hellenism  and 
Hebraism  in  an  intense  religious  spirit,  while  their 
lOS 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

remoteness  from  the  mass  of  the  people  throws 
light  on  the  general  aversion  toward  such  move- 
ments. They  reached  the  height  of  their  develop- 
ment In  the  first  century  B.  C.  E.,  when  from  their 
midst  sprang  a  preacher  of  singular  piety,  John  the 
Baptist,  and  they  passed  out  of  Jewish  history  a 
little  later  to  exert  a  large  influence  on  the  history 
of  the  Church.  The  Ebionltes,  who  were  the 
Jewish  element  In  early  Christendom,  were  their 
successors  in  Palestine,  and  took  over  many  of  their 
ceremonies  and  customs  and  doctrines.'^ 

While  Hellenistic  rationalism  affected  the  Ideas 
of  the  Sadducees,  and  Hellenistic  dualism,  with  Its 
corollary  of  the  ascetic  life,  characterized  the  Ideas 
of  the  Essenes,  another  Hellenistic  Influence  may 
be  traced  In  a  peculiar  Jewish  literature  of  the 
period,  which  flourished  Inside  as  well  as  outside 
Palestine.  The  apocalyptic  and  pseudeplgraphic 
books  reflect  many  characteristics  of  Hellenistic  re- 
ligion. They  were  very  numerous :  the  passage  In 
the  fourth  book  of  Ezra  (the  second  book  of  Esdras 
in  the  Protestant  Apocrypha)  counts  the  sacred 
writings  as  ninety-four,  or,  according  to  one  variant 
reading,  as  two  hundred  and  four.  Of  this  total, 
twenty-four  are  In  our  Hebrew  Canon,  which 
leaves  at  least  seventy  apocryphal  works.  Some  of 
8  109 


HELLENISM 

these  were  certainly  Christian  productions,  but  a 
large  number  were  of  Jewish  authorship;  and 
while  the  majority  had  their  origin  among  the 
Greek-speaking  communities  of  the  diaspora,  sev- 
eral that  are  extant  bear  the  marks  of  Palestinian 
birth.  Not  one  has  completely  survived  in  its 
original  Hebrew  form.  They  never  received  the 
sanction  of  the  Rabbis,  and  at  the  crisis  of  the 
national  religious  life  they  were  cast  out  of  Jewish 
tradition  as  of  dubious  value  or  mischievous. 
They  have  been  preserved  by  Christians  In  Syrlac, 
Greek,  Armenian,  Slavonic,  Coptic,  or  Latin  trans- 
lations, in  which  they  could  Influence  the  writers  of 
the  Church,  but  could  not  exercise  any  hold  over 
the  congregation  of  Israel.  The  heads  of  the  Jew- 
ish schools,  In  their  struggle  to  preserve  Judaism 
intact  after  the  loss  of  national  Independence,  per- 
ceived the  danger  of  this  literature,  and  banned 
It  not  only  from  the  Canon  of  Scripture  but  from 
the  house  of  study.  But  In  the  time  preceding  the 
national  catastrophe  the  books  enjoyed  a  certain 
amount  of  popularity. 

The  pseudepigraphic  literature  falls  into  three 
classes:  Apocalypses,  or  revelations  of  the  unknown 
world;  Testaments,  which  are  largely  summaries 
of  universal  history  in  the  form  of  prophecies ;  and 

110 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

haggadistic  or  legendary  elaborations  of  the 
Bible  record.  They  are  all  of  the  genus  of 
religious  fiction.  Typical  of  the  first  class  is  the 
book  of  Enoch,  of  the  second  the  Testaments  of 
the  twelve  Patriarchs,  of  the  third  the  Book  of 
Jubilees.  The  three  were  probably  written  by  Pal- 
estinian Jews  in  Hebrew.  They  have  this  in  com- 
mon that  they  contain  much  fantastic  and  imagina- 
tive speculation  about  the  Messiah  and  angels  and 
the  future  world,  and  profess  to  reveal  a  secret  or 
inner  knowledge  which  is  not  contained  in  scriptural 
history.  The  motive  which  underlies  their  com- 
position is  that,  besides  the  knowledge  of  God  and 
the  history  which  is  revealed  in  the  Bible,  a  deeper 
and  more  recondite  wisdom  exists  which  may  be 
divulged  to  the  saints.  This  conception  of  a  twofold 
wisdom — one  for  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  the 
other  for  the  sage — was  part  of  Hellenistic,  espe- 
cially Pythagorean  thought,  which  distinguished  be- 
tween the  esoteric  and  exoteric  doctrines  of  the  phi- 
losophers. From  the  Hellenistic  world  it  made  its 
way  into  Judaism.  But  the  secret  speculation  was 
early  felt  to  be  alien  to  the  true  spirit  of  the  re- 
ligion. An  ingenious  suggestion  of  Krochmal 
refers  the  last  warning  of  Ecclesiastes  against  the 
making  of  many  books  to  the  secret  doctrines;**' 

111 


HELLENISM 

and  Ben  SIra  more  clearly  utters  the  warning:" 
"  Reflect  on  that  which  is  permitted,  but  busy  not 
thyself  with  secret  things.  Rebel  not  against  that 
which  is  beyond  thee:  too  great  for  thee  is  the 
vision ;  for  many  are  the  thoughts  of  man,  and  false 
Imaginations  lead  astray.  A  presumptuous  man 
shall  have  an  evil  end,  and  he  who  loves  visions  of 
good  shall  be  carried  away  by  them.*' 

The  content  of  the  secret  literature  was  likewise 
somewhat  alien  to  the  spirit  of  Judaism:  it  was 
mainly  concerned  with  heaven  and  the  life  to  come, 
and  the  general  outlook  was  pessimistic  about  the 
affairs  of  this  world.  It  is  true  that  visions  about 
the  celestial  kingdom  are  to  be  found  in  Ezekiel 
and  several  of  the  later  prophets,  as  well  as  in 
Daniel,  whose  book  is  the  one  fully-developed 
example  of  apocalypse  in  the  Hebrew  Canon;  but 
these  very  examples  illustrate  the  semi-foreign 
character  of  such  speculations,  since  they  arose 
from  the  mixture  of  Babylonian  and  Persian  with 
Hebrew  beliefs.  The  teachings  about  angels, 
the  topography  of  the  heavenly  world,  and  the 
pseudo-prophetic  visions  of  past  events  had  begun  to 
find  their  way  into  Jewish  thought  before  the  large 
syncretism  of  the  Hellenistic  age  had  taken  place. 
But  a  great  impulse  in  this  direction  was  given  by 

112 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

the  new  conditions  which  followed  on  the  founda- 
tion of  a  cosmopolitan  culture. 

The  contact  of  Hellenistic  thought  with  eastern 
civilization  had  the  effect  of  emphasizing  the 
gloomy  and  mystical  elements  which  underlay  the 
rational  thought  of  classical  Greece,  and  of  bring- 
ing into  light  the  undergrowth  of  primitive  beliefs 
and  speculations  which  had  come  down  from  Ori- 
ental sources.  In  the  horror  of  death  which  seized 
on  men  after  the  city-state  was  broken  up,  a  de- 
mand grew  up  for  knowledge  of  the  after-world; 
and  in  the  distrust  of  human  reason,  which  was 
consequent  on  the  decay  of  intellectual  activity, 
crude  and  wild  imaginings  were  eagerly  accepted. 
The  Hebraic  and  Hellenistic-Jewish  Apocalypses 
display  the  same  temper,  and  are  the  outcome  of 
the  same  spirit  as  prompted  the  Hermetic  writings 
of  Egypt,  the  neo-Pythagorean  Cosmogonies,  and 
the  Visions  and  Testaments  of  Apollonius  of 
Tyana." 

It  was  rather  a  Graeco-Egyptian  or  Graeco- 
Syrian  than  a  Hellenic  influence  which  in  this  secret 
teaching  modified  Jewish  monotheism  and  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Torah.  The  Pharisees,  and  through 
them  the  Synagogue,  were  alive  to  the  dangers  of 
such   syncretism   for  the   religion   of   Israel,   and 

113 


HELLENISM 

hence,  prolific  as  was  the  literature  even  In  Pales- 
tine, it  did  not  vitally  affect  the  thought  of  the  main 
body  of  the  Jewish  people.  It  is  probable  that  it 
appealed  particularly  to  the  Galilean  'Am  ha-Arez, 
the  common  populace  of  the  north,  and  to  the 
mixed  population  of  the  Hellenistic  cities  which 
had  been  only  partially  converted  to  Judaism. 

The  national  consciousness  nourished  by  the 
Torah  had  an  instinctive  aversion  to  whatever  was 
not  true  to  the  cardinal  points  of  Judaism;  and 
therefore  the  doctrines  of  mediating  angels  and 
heavenly  journeys,  and  the  other  theosophical 
speculations  of  the  Testaments  and  Apocalypses 
and  Assumptions  were  never  organically  united  to 
Catholic  Judaism.  They  were  "  external  "  things, 
an  Oriental  leaven  which  played  a  large  part  in  the 
composition  of  Christianity,  but  left  only  a  small 
impress  on  rabbinic  theology,  and  that  in  a  sifted 
and  expurgated  form.  Palestinian  Judaism,  for 
the  most  part,  kept  itself  aloof  from  those  mixed 
beliefs  as  well  as  from  the  more  vulgar  form  of 
polytheism  and  paganism;  but  in  Alexandria,  Anti- 
och,  and  Tarsus,  and  other  centres  of  the  Hellenistic 
diaspora,  they  became  subversive  of  a  pure  mono- 
theism and  a  temptation  to  the  abandonment  of  the 
Torah. 

114 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

But  although  the  main  body  of  the  Jewish  people 
rejected  Hellenism  and  its  ways,  intercourse  with 
the  Greek  peoples  and  the  use  of  the  Greek 
language  was  by  no  means  eschewed.  At  this 
period  the  Palestinian  teachers  regarded  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  with  favor,  as  an  in- 
strument for  carrying  the  truth  to  the  Gentiles," 
and  it  was  even  said  that  Greek  was  the  only 
language  into  which  the  Bible  could  be  properly 
translated,*"  and  again  that  the  Aramaic  Targum 
was  made  from  the  Greek."  Greek  translations  of 
parts  of  the  Bible  seem  to  have  been  made  in  Pales- 
tine itself;  for  if  the  preface  to  the  Septuagint 
version  of  Esther  is  to  be  believed,  that  book  was 
done  into  Greek  in  Jerusalem  by  Lysimachus,  son 
of  Ptolemy,  and  brought  into  Egypt  by  one 
Dositheus  In  the  fourth  year  of  Ptolemy  and  Cleo- 
patra. The  date  has  been  generally  Identified  with 
114  B.  C.  E.  Supposing  the  statement  true, 
Lysimachus  may  have  been  an  Egyptian,  and  there- 
fore a  Hellenistic  Jew  sojourning  In  Palestine. 
That  there  was  a  constant  coming  and  going  be- 
tween the  Jewish  community  under  the  Ptolemies 
and  the  independent  Jewish  kingdom  during  the 
whole  period  of  national  existence  Is  shown  by 
many  circumstances.     The  dispossessed  high  priest 

115 


HELLENISM 

Onias  IV  flees  to  Egypt  from  the  Seleucid  persecu- 
tion, and  nearly  a  hundred  years  later  the  leaders  of 
the  Pharisees  likewise  flee  to  the  same  refuge  from 
the  persecution  of  Alexander  Jannaeus.  In  the 
time  of  Herod,  again,  the  Alexandrian  family  of 
Boethus  became  high  priests.  Aristobulus,  one  of 
the  earliest  Alexandrian-Jewish  philosophers,  ac- 
cording to  the  book  ascribed  to  him,  came  from 
Palestine,  and  the  grandson  of  Ben  Sira,  whose 
statements  are  above  suspicion,  went  down  to 
Egypt  when  Euergetes  was  king  (i.  e.,  132 
B.  C.  E.),  and  continued  there  some  time,  and 
found  "  a  book  of  no  small  learning."  This  means 
probably  that  he  found  a  book  of  the  same  kind  as 
his  grandsire's  in  vogue  among  the  community, 
which  may  be  the  book  we  know  as  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon.  "  Therefore  I  thought  it  necessary  for 
me  to  bestow  some  diligence  and  to  interpret  it  {i.  e.^ 
the  work  of  his  grandfather)  and  set  it  forth  for 
them  also  which  in  a  strange  country  are  willing  to 
learn,  being  prepared  before  to  live  according  to 
the  Law." 

In  the  opinion  of  Zunz,"  likewise  the  Greek 
original  of  the  first  apocryphal  book  of  Esdras, 
which  is  a  kind  of  Targum  and  Midrash  of  the 
biblical  books  of  Ezra  and  Chronicles,  is  derived 

116 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

from  Palestine.  The  Palestinian  literature  of  the 
second  and  first  centuries  before  the  Christian  era 
has  come  down  to  us  almost  entirely  In  Greek 
translations  from  the  Hebrew,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  Hellenistic  ideas  have  been  traced  In  the 
earliest  rabbinic  records. 

The     political     Independence     of     the     Jewish 
kingdom    involved    acquaintance    with    the    para- 
mount cosmopolitan  culture  no  less  than  the  former 
subjection  to  a  Greek  empire.     One  of  the  qualifi- 
cations for  m.embership  of  the  Sanhedrin  was  a 
l^owledge  of  languages,  Including  Greek;"  and 
the  influence  of  Greek  law  has  been  traced  In  the 
Jewish  legal  system.     Diplomatic  intercourse  was 
carried    on    through    Greek,    and    the    Jews    had 
friendly  relations  with  some  of  the  Greek  peoples. 
Almost  all  the  terms  of  public  life  and  government 
which  are  found  In  the  Talmud  are  Greek  translit- 
erations, and  the  institutions  of  the  religious  life 
likewise  were  clothed  in  a  new  dress.     The  Hel- 
lenistic term  ^wehpiov  (Sanhedrin)   supplanted  the 
Hebrew  nSnjnnojD;  and  though  in  Palestine  the 
house  of  prayer  and  assembly  still  preserved  Its 
Hebrew    name    Bet   ha-Kenesct,    the    Hellenistic 
"  synagogue  "  replaced  It  In  the  language  of  the 
Graeco-Roman  world. 

117 


HELLENISM 

It  is  Striking,  too,  that  the  officer  of  the  Syna- 
gogue, who  is  still  called  Parnass,  owes  his  name 
to  a  Greek  word  {Upovov^  "  man  of  foresight  "), 
and  that  the  raised  platform  where  the  prayers  were 
read  is  called  in  Talmud  the  Bima,  from  a  Greek 
word ;  and  the  ark  is  Tik  from  the  Greek  O-qK-q^  and 
in  the  Aramaic  Targum,  which  represents  the  popu- 
lar speech,  the  word  tsitsith  is  translated  Kraspedin 
from  the  Greek  word  *^  for  fringes. 

Language  then  provides  many  indications  of  the 
Hellenistic  influence  on  the  Jewish  ritual.  A  less 
permanent  memorial  of  that  influence  is  to  be 
found  in  the  coins  of  the  Maccabean  dynasty, 
which  from  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  often 
bear  a  Greek  legend.  The  gathering  at  Jerusalem, 
on  the  three  yearly  festivals,  of  deputations  from 
all  the  Hellenistic  and  Greek-speaking  communities 
must  have  made  Greek  a  familiar  language  in  the 
Jewish  metropolis.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  there  was  a  synagogue  at  Jerusalem 
for  the  Greek-speaking  Jews,  the  Libertines,  /.  e., 
the  Jews  of  Rome  who  were  Uhertini  or  freed- 
men,  the  Cyrenians,  the  Alexandrians,  and  those 
of  Cilicia  and  Asia."'  Possibly  there  was  one  large 
synagogue  for  these  communities,  divided  up  into 
various   chapels,    after   the    manner   of   the    old 

118 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

Sephardic  synagogues  In  the  East,  and  the  Talmud 
contains  a  reference  to  the  synagogue  of  the  Alex- 
andrians at  Jerusalem.'"  The  community  of 
Hellenistic  Jews  living  at  Jerusalem  in  the  first 
century  were  to  some  extent  divided  from  the  gen- 
eral body.  They  had  Greek  names  such  as  Stephen 
and  Philip,  and  many  of  them  doubtless  were 
converts.  NIcolaus,  one  of  the  seven  appointed  to 
dispense  charity  among  the  Greek  community,  is 
described  as  a  proselyte  of  Antloch." 

The  development  of  the  Christian  heresy  shows 
that  these  Graecized  Jews  and  Judalzed  proselytes 
were  prone  to  follow  Hellenistic  teachings  which 
derogated  from  pure  monotheism.  Greek  influ- 
ences, however,  no  longer  exercised  a  disinte- 
grating influence  as  In  the  days  before  the  Macca- 
bees. Various  attempts  from  without  were  made 
to  foster  a  Hellenistic  revival  In  Palestine,  but  they 
failed.  After  his  conquest  of  Syria  and  Asia  In 
60  B.  C.  E.,  Pompelus  tried  to  restore  to  power  and 
Independence  the  Greek  city-states  In  Palestine,  as 
a  means  of  weakening  Jewish  national  solidarity; 
he  succeeded  in  re-establishing  In  some  degree  their 
material  prosperity,  but  their  culture  made  little 
or  no  impression  on  the  Jewish  people.  The  sages 
met   the    attack    by   strengthening   the    command 

119 


HELLENISM 

against  participation  in  heathen  festivals  and  as- 
semblies. When  a  little  later  the  semi-Judaized, 
semi-barbarian  Herod  tried,  in  the  manner  of 
Antiochus  EpiphaneSjto  set  himself  up  as  the  patron 
and  champion  of  Hellenism,  he  gained  the  good- 
will of  the  Roman  Caesars,  but  alienated  the 
sympathy  of  his  people.  He  founded  splendid 
Greek  cities,"  such  as  Sebaste  on  the  site  of  the  old 
Samaria,  Capernaum  and  Tiberias  by  the  sea  of 
Galilee,  Caesarea  and  Antipatris  on  the  coast;  and 
settled  in  them  a  mixed  population  of  Greeks  and 
Jews ;  he  endowed  lavishly  Greek  gymnasiums  and 
temples,  he  instituted  Greek  games  at  Jerusalem,  he 
sent  magnificent  embassies  to  Greek  festivals  at 
Athens  and  Olympia — in  fact  he  was  more  Hellen- 
ist than  the  Hellene.  But  his  actions  had  little 
effect  on  the  Jewish  national  life,  and  were  not  the 
expression  of  any  tendency  of  the  Jewish  people. 

The  mass  of  the  nation  was  solidly  welded  to- 
gether by  its  religion  and  its  law.  Did  a  section^ 
such  as  the  Sadducees  and  the  Essenes,  modify  its 
ideas  through  the  blending  of  Hellenistic  notions, 
it  gradually  dropped  out  of  the  national  life.  Did 
a  king  seek  to  foster,  or  a  Roman  conqueror  seek  to 
impose,  a  more  vulgar  Hellenism,  the  people  found 
strength  and  consolation  in  their  schools  and  their 

120 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

synagogues,  and  In  cryptic  prophecies  denounced 
the  coming  vengeance  upon  the  wrong-doers,  and 
the  ultimate  universal  triumph  of  the  Jewish  law. 
Did  Hellenistic  notions  find  their  way  Into  the 
Palestinian  schools,  they  were  transformed  by  the 
Jewish  spirit,  or,  if  they  could  not  be  so  digested, 
they    were     rejected.        The     national     religious 
consciousness  was  proof  against  the  temptation  to 
assimilate,   no  less  than  against  the  pressure   of 
armed  force.    Hence,  while  the  upper  classes  were 
conversant  with  Greek,  while  Jerusalem  was,   In 
many  ways,  one  of  the  most  cosmopolitan  cities  of 
the  world,  and  the  temple  was  one  of  the  seats  of 
the    world's    worship,    still    Hellenism    only    col- 
ored, without  undermining  Palestinian  Judaism,  and 
Greek    as    a    language    never    ousted    the    native 
Aramaic  as  the  speech  of  the  people,  or  Hebrew 
as  the  vehicle  of  literature.     Paul  is  compelled  to 
speak  Hebrew  in  Jerusalem,  and  Titus  summons 
the  people  to  surrender  In  Aramaic."^     The  extent 
to  which  Greek  was  a  foreign  language  even  to  the 
cultivated  Jew  of  Palestine  Is  Illustrated  by  the  ex- 
ample  of  Josephus.     The   most    famous   of   the 
Palestinian  Hellenists,  who  was  born  in  37  C.  E. 
of  a  priestly  family  of  Jerusalem,  and  therefore 
belonged  to  the  upper  classes,  admits  that  he  could 

121 


HELLENISM 

not  speak  Greek  with  sufficient  exactness,  though 
he  had  taken  great  pains  to  obtain  the  learning  of 
the  Greeks  and  understand  the  elements  of  the 
Greek  language.  *'  For,"  says  he,  "  our  nation 
does  not  encourage  those  that  learn  the  languages 
of  many  nations,  and  so  adorn  their  discourse  with 
the  smoothness  of  their  periods;  because  they  look 
upon  this  sort  of  accomplishment  as  common  not 
only  to  all  sorts  of  freemen,  but  to  such  servants  as 
care  to  learn  them.  But  they  give  him  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  a  wise  man,  who  is  fully  acquainted 
with  our  laws  and  is  able  to  interpret  their  mean- 
ing." "  He  wrote  his  first  work,  on  the  Wars 
of  the  Jews,  originally  "  in  the  language  of  our 
own  writing,"  i.  e.,  Hebrew  or  Aramaic,  and  sent 
It  thus  to  the  "  Upper  Barbarians  " — as  he  so  calls 
the  Jews  in  Parthia  and  Babylonia  who  presumably 
did  not  understand  Greek.  For  the  benefit  of 
the  Gentiles  and  the  Greek-speaking  communities 
he  translated  the  books  into  the  common  language 
of  culture; ''  but  he  did  not  acquire  the  command  of 
that  language  till  after  he  had  been  brought  as  a 
prisoner  to  Alexandria  by  Vespasian. 

It  would  be  rash  to  infer  from  the  autobio- 
graphical remarks  of  Josephus  that  the  habit  of 
Greek  speech  was  unknown  to  the  Palestinian  com- 

122 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

munity;   and  circumstances   point   against  such   a 
conclusion.     But  other  facts  corroborate  his  state- 
ment that  the  command  of  Greek  was  rare  among 
the  people  and  not  prized  by  them.     The  Pales- 
tinian   culture    therefore    was    in    its    main    lines 
essentially    and    exclusively    national.      From    the 
time  of  the  Maccabees  the  definite  individual  stamp 
which  had  distinguished  it  ever  since  the  Restora- 
tion from  Babylon  is  emphasized.     The  introduc- 
tion of  Greek  ideas,  which  had  at  first  made  head- 
way among  a  section  of  the  people,  was  stoutly  and 
successfully    resisted;    attempts     at     fusion     and 
syncretism   were   distrusted   by  the   sages   of  the 
Sanhedrin  and  the  leaders  of  the  Synagogue,  and 
merely  affected  small  sections  which  were  converted 
into  sectaries.  Between  Judaism  and  paganism  there 
was  open  war,  and  in  Palestine  the  Jews  were  the 
aggressors.     Outside  Palestine  indeed  the  Hellen- 
istic    theology   made    large    Inroads    into   Jewish 
doctrines,   and  considerably  modified  the  Jewish 
monotheism,   but   In   Palestine   it  was   almost   as 
rigidly  excluded   as  Idolatry.     The  universallstic 
standpoint,  which  was  common  to  the  Jews  in  their 
own  land  and  those  In  the  diaspora,  cannot  fairly 
be     ascribed     to     Hellenistic     influence.     It     is 
splendidly    and    repeatedly    proclaimed    by    the 

123 


HELLENISM 

prophets  of  Israel,  and  must  be  accounted  as  part 
of  the  Hebraic  genius.  The  ideal,  as  the  greatest 
teachers  understood  it,  was  to  be  attained  not  by 
the  abandonment  of  national  life  and  tradition,  but 
by  their  expansion.  According  to  Hillel — the  out- 
standing interpreter  of  the  Law  before  the  loss 
of  national  independence — "  the  kingdom  of  right- 
eousness would  be  established  not  by  merging 
Judaism  in  a  broad  humanitarianism,  but  by  mak- 
ing Judaism  itself  an  embodiment  of  the  principles 
of  humanity."  " 

Palestine,  then,  was  the  cradle  of  an  intense 
Hebrew  life,  which,  amid  the  ever-increasing 
welter  of  civilizations  and  cultures  in  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world,  maintained  a  pure  and  distinct 
national  character.  And  it  preserved  Judaism 
and  the  national  life  of  the  Jews,  not  only  for  its 
own  community,  but  for  the  people  all  the  world 
over.  The  congregations  of  the  diaspora  could 
be  allowed  to  assimilate  more  freely  the  Hellenistic 
culture,  because  at  the  centre  the  clear  standard 
was  upheld  and  the  Hebraic  outlook  was  undefiled. 
Lastly,  during  the  two  hundred  years,  in  which 
Judaism  was  continually  expanding  and  consoli- 
dating Its  teaching  on  its  own  soil,  the  individuality 
of  the  people  was  so  confirmed  that,  when  the  centre 

124 


HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE 

was  violently  broken  up,  and  the  political  forms  of 
national  existence  were  taken  away,  the  spirit  re- 
mained strong  and  enabled  the  national  religious 
life  to  hold  out  both  against  internal  disintegration 
and  outward  compulsion. 


125 


CHAPTER  IV 

HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

The  Influence  of  Hellenistic  thought  on  the 
Jewish  communities  of  the  diaspora  was  naturally 
larger  and  more  direct  than  on  Palestinian  Jewry; 
for  in  the  dispersion  the  Jews  were  not  merely 
surrounded  by,  but  living  in  the  midst  of,  a  Greek- 
speaking  cosmopolitan  population.  And  they 
lacked  the  solidarity  and  the  power  of  resistance 
to  foreign  Ideas  which  is  the  outcome  of  a  con- 
centrated national  life  In  a  separate  territory.  The 
centrifugal  tendency  was  bound,  therefore,  to  be 
more  pronounced,  and  to  grow  as  their  Identifica- 
tion with  the  life  of  the  country  In  which  they  were 
settled  became  more  complete.  Strong  as  was  their 
consciousness  of  being  a  peculiar  people,  they  rap- 
Idly  assimilated  Greek  thought.  The  process  can 
be  best  studied  at  Alexandria,  because  the  literary 
records  of  Alexandrian  Jewry  are  the  fullest.  The 
first  and  the  fundamental  step  toward  the  intro- 
duction of  the  outside  culture  was  the  adoption  by 
the  Jews  of  the  Greek  language  as  their  mother- 
tongue  ;  and,  accordingly,  the  first  sign  of  Hellenism 

126 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

and  the  basis  of  its  influence  was  the  translation 
of  the  Scriptures  into  Greek.  The  translation 
probably  had  two  motives:  a  desire  of  the  Jews  to 
make  their  holy  books  known  to  the  people  about 
them,  and  the  substitution  of  Greek  for  Hebrew 
or  Aramaic  as  the  language  of  reading  the 
Scriptures  in  the  synagogue,  which  was  rendered 
necessary  by  the  growing  Hellenization  of  the 
community. 

Legend  soon  gathered  Itself  about  an  event 
fraught  with  such  importance  to  the  destinies  of 
the  Jewish  people  and  to  the  whole  of  civilization. 
The  Hellenistic  writers,  Arlsteas,  Josephus,  and 
Phllo,  and  likewise  the  Talmud/  recount  a  story 
of  seventy-two  sages  sent  by  the  high  priest  from 
Judea  to  Alexandria  at  the  request  of  King 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus  (about  250  B.  C.  E.)  and 
lodged  in  the  island  of  Pharos  opposite  Alexandria, 
each  In  a  separate  cell,  till  they  had  completed  the 
translation  of  the  five  books.  Each  of  the 
versions,  it  is  said,  agreed  word  for  word,  which 
proved  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  translation  and 
its  authoritative  character.  The  story  bears  the 
impress  of  tendenz  fiction,  no  less  than  another 
legend  recorded  In  the  Talmud — which  originated 
some  centuries  later,  when  bitter  experience  had 

127 


HELLENISM 

given  a  new  significance  to  the  event — that  while 
the  translation  was  being  made,  a  plague  of  dark- 
ness hung  over  Palestine/  The  one  story  reflects 
the  remarkable  attachment  which  the  Greek- 
speaking  Jews  showed  to  the  version  for  three 
centuries;  the  other  the  misgivings,  which  were 
engendered  later  among  the  Rabbis,  of  the 
Hellenizing  movement  that  started  from  it.  In- 
ternal and  external  evidence,  indeed,  point  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  first  two  books  of  the  Penta- 
teuch were  translated  at  Alexandria  about  the  era 
of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  to  whose  instigation  the 
legend  ascribed  the  origin  of  the  whole  work.  This 
early  section  of  the  translation  is  written  in  the 
common  Greek  dialect  of  the  Hellenistic  era,  but  is 
full  of  Hebraisms  and  is  innocent  of  literary  artifice 
or  style.  In  time  the  other  books  of  Moses,  the 
historical  books,  the  books  of  the  Prophets,  and  the 
Holy  Writings  were  translated — in  the  case  of  the 
last-named,  with  certain  haggadic  additions  which 
do  not  appear  in  the  Hebrew  Canon,  but  which  are 
parallelled  in  the  Aramaic  Targum. 

The  first  literary  work  of  the  Hellenistic  Jews 
was  the  translation,  the  next  the  expansion,  of  their 
Scriptures.  From  references  in  the  fragments  of 
Hellenistic-Jewish  historians  preserved  in  the  col- 

128 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

lection  of  Alexander  Polyhlstor  (flourished  about 
80  B.  C.  E.)  it  is  certain  that  the  greater  part  of 
the  translation  had  been  completed  by  the  begin- 
ning of  the  first  century  before  the  civil  era.  The 
form  is  a  little  less  crude  in  the  later  parts,  but  the 
version  of  the  prophetic  books  shows  little  literary 
sense  or  Greek  literary  influence.  Still  less  does  It 
exhibit  the  impress  of  the  knowledge  of  Greek 
philosophy,  though  ingenious  critics,  with  theories 
to  prove,  have  made  it  a  favorite  hunting-ground 
for  traces  of  Stoic  and  Platonic  teaching.  Neverthe- 
less, If  the  Septuagint  itself  does  not  manifest  any 
considerable  modification  of  Hebraic  ideas,  the 
effect  of  studying  the  Scriptures  in  Greek,  and  of 
not  studying  them  in  Hebrew,  was  momentous  for 
the  Judaism  of  the  diaspora.  Gradually  but 
surely  the  Jews  began  to  assimilate  the  religious 
ideas  of  the  people  about  them,  and  to  look  on 
the  Scriptures  under  the  influence  of  those  ideas. 
Words  stand  rooted  In  a  national  soil;  and  if  the 
terms  of  Greek  theology  came  with  a  new  meaning 
to  the  Jewish  mind  which  Impressed  them  with  Its 
own  stamp,  on  the  other  hand,  as  the  Greek  trans- 
lator of  Ben  Sira  recognized,  "  things  originally 
spoken  in  Hebrew  have  no  longer  the  same  force 
when  they  are  translated  Into  another  tongue ;  and 

129 


HELLENISM 

not  only  these  (the  maxims  of  his  grandfather), 
but  the  Torah,  the  Prophets,  and  the  other  Books 
of  the  Bible  have  no  small  difference  when  they 
are  spoken  In  their  original  language." 

The  Greek  version  could  not  convey  just  the 
same  conception  of  monotheism  as  the  Hebrew 
Bible,  and  there  was,  moreover,  a  conscious  avoid- 
ance of  anthropomorphism.  Thus,  when  the  He- 
brew text  says  that  Moses  saw  God  on  His  throne, 
the  Septaugint  renders  it  that  he  saw  the  place  which 
God  inhabits.'  God  speaks  to  Moses  not  "  face  to 
face,"  as  in  the  original,  but  in  a  vision.'  Again,  a 
desire  to  glorify  and  justify  the  Jewish  people  led 
to  the  Insertion  of  additions  to  some  of  the  later 
books  (Esther,  Daniel,  etc.).  On  the  other  hand, 
the  desire  to  conceal  what  might  be  made  a  reproach 
by  their  enemies  led  to  the  omission  of  a  few 
passages,  such  as  the  story  of  Judah  and  Tamar. 
The  Talmud  '  mentions  that  thirteen  passages  were 
altered  in  the  Septuagint  translation  for  the  sake  of 
King  Ptolemy;  and  the  process  of  making  altera- 
tions to  suit  Greek  taste  was  practised  on  a  large 
scale  by  the  later  commentators  and  adapters  of  the 
Greek  Bible.  Hence,  partly  by  the  unconscious  In- 
fluence of  a  change  of  language,  partly  by  deliber- 
ate modification,  the  seeds  of  an  impure  Judaism 

130 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

were  sown  in  the  Bible  and  the  Synagogue  of  the 
diaspora. 

We  have  but  sparse  records  of  the  development 
of  the  Alexandrian  or  any  other  Hellenistic  com- 
munity between  the  beginning  of  the  third  and  the 
middle  of  the  second  centuries.  Our  main  sources 
of  knowledge  are  inscriptions  and  fragments  of 
pagan  historians,  and  we  have  to  infer  the  internal 
development  from  our  fuller  knowledge  of  the 
subsequent  period.  The  anti-Jewish  chronicles  of 
Manetho,  an  Egyptian  historian  of  the  second 
century  B.  C.  E.,  argue  the  existence  of  a  passive 
enmity  between  the  semi-Hellenized  Egyptians  and 
the  Jews ;  but  the  exalted  positions  filled  by  Jews  at 
the  court  of  the  Ptolemies  prove  that  the  govern- 
ing powers  did  not  share  the  prejudice.  Moreover, 
the  writings  of  the  worthier  Hellenistic  historians 
indicate  that  the  monotheism  of  the  Synagogue  won 
the  respect  of  the  philosophical  classes.  The 
knowledge  and  command  of  Greek  were  doubtless 
gaining  steadily  among  the  Jews,  and  the  elimina- 
tion of  Hebrew  from  the  religious  service  must 
have  been  slowly  going  on.  At  the  same  time  the 
earlier  Hellenistic-Jewish  literature  affords  scant 
suggestion  of  the  introduction  of  foreign  ideas. 

131 


HELLENISM 

After  the  Septuaglnt,  the  Chronicles  of 
Demetrius  are  the  oldest  historical  work  of  the 
diaspora  of  which  we  can  judge,  and  they  are 
faithful  In  substance  to  the  Scripture  narrative. 
Again  the  story  of  the  Seleucid  persecution  and  the 
Maccabean  struggle  written  by  Jason  of  Cyrene, 
of  which  an  epitome  exists  In  the  Second  Book  of 
the  Maccabees,  If  less  reliable  than  the  record  of 
the  Hebrew  book.  Is  Impregnated  by  the  same  spirit 
of  loyalty  to  the  religion,  and  by  an  equal  national 
pride.'  The  prefatory  letters  which  Introduce  the 
epitome,  as  also  the  preface  of  the  translator  of 
Ecclesiastlcus,  reveal  the  close  kinship  of  feeling 
between  the  Palestinian  and  Alexandrian  communi- 
ties. Nor  is  It  without  significance  that  the  loyal 
members  of  the  priesthood,  when  they  fled  for 
refuge  from  the  tyranny  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
and  the  Hellenlzers,  and  a  little  later  Onlas  IV, 
when  he  failed  to  be  elected  high  priest  of  Jerusa- 
lem, turned  to  Egypt,  and  established  a  new 
sanctuary.  Political  considerations  of  the  enmity 
of  the  Ptolemies  to  the  Seleuclds  doubtless  Influ- 
enced them ;  but  in  Egypt  they  could  find  a  staunch 
body  of  their  brethren  devoted  to  the  temple 
service. 

132 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

That  the  cruder  side  of  Hellenism,  the  religious 
cults,  affected  a  section  of  Jewry  in  the  diaspora  as 
in  Palestine  is  but  natural:  in  every  age  and  place 
there  are  Jews  W'ho  desire  to  drop  their  individu- 
ality. One  monument  records  a  contribution  of 
money  by  a  Carian  Jew,  Jason,  towards  the  festival 
of  Dionysus,  another,  found  in  a  temple  of  Pan 
in  Upper  Egypt,  records  the  thanks  of  two  Jews  to 
the  Greek  god  for  their  deliverance,'  another  from 
Delphi  an  offering  of  an  emancipated  Jewish  slave 
to  Apollo.  These,  however,  are  but  isolated  ex- 
amples, and  the  anti-Jewish  scribblers  are  never 
wearied  of  reproaching  the  Jews  with  misanthropy 
and  "  atheism  "  because  of  their  aloofness  and  re- 
ligious Puritanism  in  a  period  of  free  exchange  of 
divinities.  The  mass  of  the  people  rigidly  main- 
tained their  separateness  and  their  resistance  to 
paganism.  Whereas  to-day  the  charge  Is  made 
that  the  Jews  are  cosmopolitan  in  a  national 
society,  then  the  current  complaint  was  that  they 
were  national  in  a  cosmopolitan  society. 

Nevertheless,  the  more  Intellectual  and  more 
refined  Hellenism,  contained  in  the  philosophical 
thought  of  the  Greek  masters,  gradually  affected 
a  section  of  the  people.  The  two  alleged  pre- 
Maccabean  writings  which  exemplify  such  an  Influ- 

133 


HELLENISM 

ence  are  demonstrably  later  forgeries.  Both  the 
Letter  of  Aristeas  and  the  fragments  of  the  "  Exe- 
gesis "  of  Aristobulus,  which  have  been  preserved 
by  various  Church  fathers,  do  not  date  before  the 
first  century;  and  the  exact  harmony  of  Jewish  and 
Greek  thought  ascribed  to  these  early  Hellenistic- 
Jewish  worthies  represents  the  notions  of  a  later 
age."  But  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Aristeas 
and  Aristobulus  were  early  exponents  of  a  Hellen- 
istic-Jewish reconciliation  between  the  rational 
ethics  of  Greece  and  the  revealed  moral  law  of 
Israel:  the  pioneers  of  a  Jewish  moral  philosophy. 
The  Maccabean  triumph  marks  a  turning-point 
In  the  history  alike  of  Hellenistic  and  Palestinian 
Judaism.  The  vindication  of  Jewish  Independ- 
ence prompted  in  the  dispersed  Jewish  community 
a  feeling  of  pride  in  their  special  culture,  and  an 
intense  desire  to  impart  It  to  the  nations;  and 
henceforth  they  are  essentially  an  active  rather 
than  a  passive  factor  In  the  Hellenistic  world. 
Their  apologists  teach  the  defensive,  and  adopt  the 
offensive  by  attacks  on  paganism.  The  conscious- 
ness of  a  religious  mission  to  the  world,  which  had 
been  aroused  In  the  crisis  of  the  first  captivity,  was 
revived  with  redoubled  force  by  the  crisis  through 
which  the  people  passed;  and  the  prophecy  that 

134 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

Israel  should  be  a  light  among  the  nations  could 
now  be  made  a  living  and  practical  ideal.  What 
had  been  a  vision  to  the  prophets  was  now  a  mission 
to  the  people.  Two  conditions  favored  the  ex- 
pansive movement  In  the  diaspora.  The  Jews  were 
in  close  contact  with  the  Hellenistic  world,  and  by 
the  assimilation  of  the  general  culture  of  the  age 
could  express  their  message  in  an  Intelligible  form. 
Moreover,  the  Hellenistic  welter  of  peoples,  owing 
to  the  decay  of  their  religion  and  the  growing 
disbelief  in  pagan  polytheism,  were  groping  for 
some  religious  teaching  which  should  afford  a 
sanction  for  morality  and  give  to  life  a  purpose  and 
a  hope.  The  day  had  come  of  which  the  prophet 
Amos '  had  spoken,  when  there  should  be  "  a 
famine  In  the  land,  not  a  famine  of  bread,  nor  a 
thirst  for  water,  but  a  famine  for  hearing  the  words 
of  the  Lord.''  Hellenism,  which  had  lost  Its  fresh- 
ness as  soon  as  It  was  transplanted,  was  more  and 
more  obscured  by  Oriental  elements;  philosophy 
did  not  satisfy  the  masses,  and  the  Greek  paganism, 
which  for  a  time  attracted  the  world  by  its  beauty, 
was  found  lacking  upon  the  moral  and  spiritual  side 
of  religion  for  which  the  East  has  always  felt  a 
longing. 

135 


HELLENISM 

At  Alexandria  especially  a  great  burst  of  Jewish 
literary  activity  was  directed  toward  the  pagan 
masses;  and  a  Jewish  ethical  literature  was  forecast 
which  had  as  its  purpose  the  propagation  of  He- 
brew monotheism  in  the  educated  Gentile  society 
and  the  glorification  of  the  Jewish  law  as  a  form  of 
natural  and  rational  religion.  Much  of  the  litera- 
ture has  disappeared,  but  enough  has  survived  to 
give  us  an  adequate  idea  of  its  tone  and  character. 
The  propagandist  writings  which  w^ere  intended  to 
recommend  Judaism  to  the  masses  were  of  two 
kinds:  Hellenized  versions  of  the  Bible-stories, 
tricked  out  in  the  rhetorical  style  of  the  day  and 
embroidered  with  numerous  falsifications;  and 
moral  exhortations  to  the  heathen  disguised  behind 
the  mask  of  famous  Greek  sages  and  poets.  Of  the 
first  some  improve  the  stories  of  Genesis  and 
Exodus  in  prose;  others  in  verse.  Artapanus,  a 
historical  romancer,  seeks  to  magnify  the  greatness 
and  the  miraculous  power  of  the  patriarchs,  of 
Joseph  and  of  Moses,  ascribing  to  them  with  reck- 
less bravado  the  invention  of  the  Egyptian  arts  and 
sciences.  One  Ezekiel,  who  is  called  by  the  Church 
fathers  the  "  poet  of  Jewish  tragedies,"  among 
other  poetic  works  composed  a  drama  In  iambic 
trimeters  on  the  Exodus,  in  which  he  seems  to  have 

136 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

contented  himself  with  paraphrasing  the  biblical 
narrative  in  verse,  and  arranging  dramatically  the 
Incidents  of  Moses'  life.  His  work  was  probably 
intended  for  reading  and  not  for  action,  seeing  that 
the  Jews  altogether  eschewed  the  theatre.  It  Is 
possible,  however,  that  religious  plays  were  given 
at  the  Jewish  festivals  for  the  benefit  of  the  prose- 
lytes. Another  writer  named  Philo  composed  a 
narrative  poem  In  hexameter  verse  about  the  his- 
tory and  beauties  of  Jerusalem.  The  fragments  of 
it  show  that  his  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  scansion 
Is  equalled  by  his  love  for  the  Holy  City.  But  he 
drew  more  on  his  Imagination  than  on  knowledge. 
Describing  the  water-supply  of  Jerusalem,  he 
writes  of  some  mysterious  spring :  " 

For  flashing  from  on  high,  the  joyous  stream, 
Flooded  by  rain  and  snow,  rolls  swiftly  on 
Beneath  the  neighboring  towers;  and  spreading  o'er 
The  dry  and  dusty  ground  far  shining,  shows 
The  blessings  of  that  wonder-working  fount. 

And,  depicting  the  high  priest's  fountain : 

A  headlong  stream,  by  channels  underground, 
The  pipes  pour  forth. 

The  Letter  of  Arlsteas,  more  prosaically  but  not 
less  Imaginatively,  describes  the  wonders  of  Jerusa- 
lem which  must  have  been  a  commonplace  of  Alex- 
is? 


HELLENISM 

andrlan-jewlsh  heroics.  With  a  different  kind  of 
inventiveness  the  anonymous  author  of  the  history 
of  Jannes  and  Jambres  compiled  a  fictitious  account 
of  the  magical  powers  of  Moses,  which  were  pitted 
triumphantly  against  the  arts  of  the  famous 
Egyptian  wizards.  A  regular  battle  of  false  books 
raged  in  Egypt;  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  composing 
scandalous  and  grotesque  accounts  of  their  origin 
and  practices,  the  Jews  retorting  with  this  spurious 
aggrandizement  of  their  ancestors. 

The  popular  recommendation  of  the  one  God 
and  the  moral  law  to  the  pagan,  though  carried  on 
under  false  colors,  had  a  higher  motive.  To 
bring  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  populace,  who  required  something  more 
attractive  than  the  bald  narrative  of  the  Septuagint 
or  the  rhetorical  chronicles  of  the  historian,  some 
bolder  spirits  foisted  monotheistic  verses  on  pre- 
historic pagan  seers,  such  as  Musaeus  and  Orpheus, 
and  above  all  on  the  Sibyl,  who  described  herself  as 
a  divine  prophetess  of  the  orders  and  counsels  of 
the  gods  concerning  the  fates  of  cities  and  king- 
doms." Others  interpolated  passages  into  the 
maxims  of  the  ancient  moralist  Phocylides  and  the 
*'  dark  philosopher "  Heraclitus,  and  into  the 
tragedies    of    Sophocles    and    Euripides    and    the 

138 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

comedies  of  Menander.  The  popular  Jewish 
writers  in  Palestine  ascribed  their  books  to  the  pre- 
historic fathers  of  Israel;  but  the  Jewish  writers  of 
Alexandria  ascribed  their  poems  to  the  misty 
prophets  of  Hellas,  who  were  already  used  as  the 
vehicle  of  religious  and  ethical  teaching  by  Greek 
philosophical  schools. 

To-day,  when  the  distinction  between  fiction  and 
history  has  been  considerably  developed,  literary 
forgeries  may  appear  not  only  contemptible  but 
immoral.      That  distinction  was  unrecognized  in 
the  Alexandrian  age ;  and  when  people  cared  little 
about  the  true  authorship,  provided  the  appearance 
of  age  was  given,  they  were  adopted  as  a  vehicle  of 
every  reforming  movement  which  aimed  at  moral 
teaching.     By  the  side  of  the  Jewish  SIbyllines  may 
be    placed    the    spurious    poems    which    the    neo- 
Pythagoreans    ascribed   to   the    founder  of   their 
school,     and    the     spurious   dialogues  which   the 
Platonists  added  to  their  master's  works.      The 
feeling  for  truth   and  exactitude   altogether  was 
weak.     Spurious  literature  was  a  habit  of  the  time, 
similar  in  design  and  conception  to  our  historical 
and  religious  novel,  by  which  the  doctrines  of  a 
later  epoch  are  put  Into  the  mouth  of  historical 
characters,  not  so  much  with  a  view  of  deceiving 

139 


HELLENISM 

the  people  about  their  origin,  as  with  the  hope  of 
winning  a  greater  acceptance  for  them  by  the 
seductive  association.  The  purpose  of  these  writ- 
ings was  less  to  convert  the  Gentiles  than  to  pre- 
pare their  minds  for  a  favorable  reception  of  the 
Jewish  teaching  which  was  delivered  In  the  syna- 
gogues by  word  of  mouth.  They  must  have  been 
intended  for  the  less  intellectual  part  of  the  Greek 
reading  population.  Although  the  critical  standard 
of  the  age  was  low,  it  cannot  be  imagined  that  men 
who  had  received  a  literary  training  were  deceived 
about  the  origin  of  this  literature;  but  didactic 
hexameter  verse  was  the  form  of  writing  which 
would  appeal  to  the  half-educated  and  half- 
Hellenized  natives  among  whom  Jewish  activities 
were  largely  exercised.  Spurious  literature  only 
has  an  Influence  when  the  ideas  to  which  it  seeks  to 
give  authority  are  in  accord  with  the  demands  of 
the  people;  and  to  this  extent  it  reflects  more  cer- 
tainly the  popular  opinion  than  the  works  of  aristo- 
cratic literary  circles.  As  Osslan  met  the  demand 
of  the  eighteenth  century  for  more  naturalism  in 
poetry,  so  the  false  Sibyl  met  the  demand  of  the 
Hellenistic  world  for  more  spirituality  In  religion, 
and  her  oracles  were  a  kind  of  Tracts  for  the 
Times. 

140 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

It  Is  commonly  accepted  that  the  earliest  of 
these  Sibylline  oracles  extant  Is  the  third,  part  of 
which  is  dated  in  the  second  century.  In  an  Intro- 
duction, which  forms  a  prologue  to  the  series  of 
Jewish  Sibylllnes,  the  writer  denounces  the 
heathen,  and  proclaims  the  unity  of  God:  "Ah, 
mortal  men,  creatures  of  flesh,  how  full  are  ye  of 
self-importance,  and  reck  not  that  your  life  must 
end?  Neither  do  ye  tremble  at  the  God  who  rules 
over  you,  the  supreme  God  who  knows,  sees,  and 
understands  all  things.  He  is  the  Creator  who 
preserves  all,  and  sent  His  sweet  spirit  into  every 
being  and  made  It  rule  over  all  men.  There  Is  one 
God  alone.  He  Is  very  great,  omnipotent,  unbe- 
gotten,  invisible.  He  sees  everything,  but  cannot 
be  seen  by  any  mortal.  For  what  flesh  can  behold 
with  his  eyes  the  heavenly  and  Immortal  Being, 
since  mortal  man  cannot  even  bear  to  gaze  on  the 
beams  of  the  sun  ?  Give  worship  unto  Him,  the 
only  God,  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  who  exists 
alone  from  everlasting  to  everlasting."  Through- 
out the  passage  no  Hellenic  influence  appears  save 
in  the  form  of  the  poetry:  the  thought  is  undi- 
luted, unmodified  Hebraism;  even  the  phrase 
about  "  sending  the  spirit "  Is  merely  a  repro- 
duction of  a  verse  in  the  Psalms,"  and  so  through- 
lo  141 


HELLENISM 

out  the  oracle  the  spirit  is  everywhere  Hebraic. 
Pointing  the  lesson  that  righteousness  exalteth 
the  nation,  the  writer  menaces  with  doom  the 
Greek  kingdoms,  unless  they  put  aside  their 
idolatry  and  their  wickedness/'  An  obvious  simi- 
larity exists  between  his  outlook  and  that  of  the 
author  of  the  Hebrew  apocalypses;  but  whereas 
the  latter  offered  encouragement  and  consolation  to 
his  own  people,  the  Greek  writer  preached  to  the 
Gentiles.  The  popular  Hellenistic-Jewish  litera- 
ture is  directed  outwards,  not  inwards.  "  The 
Jewish  religion,"  says  Gibbon,"  "  was  admirably 
fitted  for  defence,  but  was  never  designed  for  con- 
quest, and  it  seems  probable  that  the  number  of 
proselytes  was  never  much  superior  to  that  of 
apostates The  Jews  eschewed  mis- 
sionary activity,  and  were  flattered  by  the  opinion 
that  they  were  alone  the  heirs  of  the  covenant;  and 
they  were  apprehensive  of  diminishing  the  value  of 
their  inheritance  by  sharing  it  too  easily  with  the 
strangers  of  the  earth."  The  statement  of  this  his- 
torian expresses  the  exact  reverse  of  the  truth  as  re- 
gards the  Hellenistic  era  of  Judaism.  For  two 
hundred  years  and  more,  from  the  time  of  the  Mac- 
cabees till  the  loss  of  national  independence,  the 
Jews  were  preeminently  a  missionary  people.    Not 

142 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

only  their  own  historians  Phllo  and  Josephus,  but 
the  classical  authors  of  the  period  record  the  strik- 
ing success  of  their  mission.  Jewish  practices  were 
spread  wherever  there  was  a  Jewish  community, 
and  the  synagogues  attracted  thousands  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  converts/'  being,  as  Phllo 
describes  them,  "  schools  of  prudence,  justice, 
piety,  holiness,  and  in  short,  of  all  virtues  by  which 
things  human  and  divine  are  well-ordered."  " 

For  a  considerable  time  the  admission  of  prose- 
lytes did  not  have  the  effect  of  weakening  the  re- 
ligion or  the  national  cohesion;  before  the  Gentiles 
were  received  as  full  members  of  the  congregation, 
they  had  to  adopt  the  national  way  of  life.  Some 
of  the  staunchest  Jews  were  not  born  In  the  faith. 
But  in  the  end  the  missionary  activity  exposed  its 
dangerous  side  in  weakening  the  hold  of  the  Torah. 
In  order  to  win  over  the  Gentiles,  the  Jewish 
preachers  tended  to  lay  stress  on  the  inner  as 
against  the  literal  meaning  of  the  law,  to  color 
Judaism  with  the  current  ethical  notions,  and  to 
explain  away  what  might  appear  tribal  or  exclusive ; 
and  naturally  the  newcomers,  for  the  most  part, 
had  not  the  same  feeling  for  the  tradition  as  those 
who  had  for  generations  lived  under  it.  They 
were   prone    also  to   interpret   the   doctrine   they 

143 


HELLENISM 

learnt  In  the  light  of  ideas  strange  to  It,  and  to  de- 
judaize  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  the  religion. 
Many  of  them  did  not  become  full  members  of  the 
congregation,  but  remained  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
Synagogue,  and  were  known  as  "  the  fearers  of  the 
Lord,"  accepting  the  beliefs  but  not  the  law  of 
Judaism. 

The  Infusion  of  Greek  ideas  Into  Jewish  teach- 
ing Is  signally  illustrated  by  the  development  of 
the  mission  of  a  higher  intellectual  order,  which 
was  addressed  to  the  cultured  classes,  unsatisfied 
with  the  philosophical  systems.  Already  in  the 
second  century  attempts  were  made  to  reconcile 
Jewish  belief  and  Jewish  law  with  Greek  theology 
and  Greek  ethics,  and  to  recommend  Judaism  as  a 
philosophical  religion.  But  it  was  not  till  the  first 
century  before  the  common  era  that  that  movement 
took  on  large  proportions.  The  ethical  schools  of 
the  Stoics  and  the  Epicureans  were  effete  and  In 
decay,  losing  their  Individuality  In  a  floating 
eclecticism,  and  seeking  some  consolation  In  the 
weariness  of  existence.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
school  of  Pythagorean  thinkers  was  groping  Its 
way  toward  a  religious  philosophy,  and  seeking  to 
satisfy  men's  spiritual  and  Intellectual  wants  by  a 
system  of  mystical  Idealism.    The  Jews,  with  their 

144 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

sincere  conviction  of  a  divine  unity  and  their 
possession  of  a  divinely  revealed  law,  began  to  de- 
velop a  philosophy  of  their  own,  which  they  offered 
to  the  Hellenistic  world  as  a  better  and  an  older 
explanation  of  the  universe  than  that  of  any  Greek 
thinker,  and  a  surer  guide  to  happiness  than  any 
other  system.  The  motive  of  their  philosophical 
writing  was  thus,  in  part,  missionary  ardor.  The 
mastery  of  Greek  doctrines  and  the  mastery  of 
Greek  literary  artifices  were  steadily  increasing. 
But  they  did  not  merely  assimilate  the  intellectual 
culture  of  their  environment;  their  Jewish  spirit 
was  paramount,  and  their  appeal  to  the  Gentiles 
retained  a  distinctive  literary  form. 

Two  anonymous  books  which  have  survived 
from  this  semi-philosophical  Jewish  literature,  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon  and  the  so-called  Fourth  Book 
of  the  Maccabees,  both  probably  date  from  the 
beginning  of  the  first  century  B.  C.  E.,  and  sprmg 
from  Alexandria.  In  the  Wisdom  the  ideas  of 
the  Greek  philosophers  only  appear  incidentally. 
Its  main  theme  is  a  warning  against  ungodliness, 
and  in  form  it  has  a  certain  correspondence  with 
Proverbs  and  Ben  Sira  and  the  other  Hebrew  ex- 
amples of  the  Wisdom  literature.  But  throughout 
the  book  images  and  concepts  show  the  influence 

145 


HELLENISM 

of  Hellenistic  culture.  It  Is  Indeed  half  a  polemic 
against  the  idolatry  and  materialized  ethics  of 
paganism,  half  a  panegyric  of  Wisdom,  which  is 
advanced  to  a  new  power  by  the  blending  of 
philosophical  Ideas  with  the  religious  conception 
of  the  Bible.  The  author  vividly  describes  the  creed 
of  the  so-called  Epicureans  who  say:  "  Short  and 
sorrowful  Is  our  life;  and  there  is  no  healing  when 
a  man  comes  to  his  end.  By  mere  chance  were 
we  born,  and  hereafter  we  shall  be  as  though  we 

had  never  been Come  therefore,  let 

us  enjoy  the  good  things  that  are  present,  and  let 
us  use  the  creation  with  all  our  soul  as  youth's 

right Let    us     fill    ourselves    with 

costly  wine  and  ointments,  and  let  no  flowxr  of  the 
spring  pass  us  by.  Let  us  crown  ourselves  with 
rosebuds  before  they  be  withered.  Let  none  of  us 
go  without  his  share  In  the  revelry.  Let  us  leave 
tokens  of  our  joyfulness  In  every  place."  " 

Against  this  creed  he  sets  up  the  Hebraic  view 
of  life.  ''  God  created  man  to  be  Immortal,  and 
made  him  to  be  an  image  of  His  own  eternity.  The 
souls  of  the  righteous  are  In  the  hands  of  God, 

and   there   shall   no  torment  touch   them 

For  even  if  In  the  sight  of  men  they  be  punished, 
their  hope  is  full  of  Immortality;  and  having  borne 

146 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

a    little    chastening,    they    shall    receive    a    great 
good."  " 

He  speaks  here  with  a  certainty  of  the  reward 
of  the  righteous,  of  which  Job  and  the  Preacher  had 
been  in  doubt.     Later  he  attacks  the  idolatrous 
paganism  which  corresponds  with  materialism  in 
thought.    "  Surely  vain  are  all  who  are  ignorant  of 
God,  and  could  not  out  of  the  good  things  that  are 
seen  know  the  true  Being.     Neither  by  considering 
the  works  did  they  acknowledge  the  artificer,  but 
deemed  either  fire,  or  wind,  or  the  swift  air,  or  the 
circle  of  the  stars,  or  violent  water,  or  the  lights  of 
heaven,  to  be  the  gods  which  govern  the  world."  " 
And  expanding  the  images  of  Isaiah,  he  denounced 
those  "  who  call  them  gods  which  are  the  work  of 
the  man's  hands ;  gold  and  silver  to  show  art  in,  and 
resemblances  of  beasts,  or  a  stone  good  for  nothing, 
the  work  of  an  ancient  hand.     But  Thou,  O  Lord, 
art  gracious  and  true,  long-suffering,  and  in  mercy 
ordered  all  things.      For  to  know  Thee  in  perfect 
righteousness,  yea,  to  know  Thy  power  is  the  root 
of  immortality."  '"     The  assurance  of  immortality 
as  the  basis  of  the  theodicy  is  a  striking  feature  of 
the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  distinguishes  It  from 
the  Wisdom  books  of  the  Bible.      It  has  often  been 
pointed  out  that  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  are  silent 

147 


HELLENISM 

upon  such  a  hope.  A  few  passages  Indeed  suggest 
a  conviction  of  the  reward  of  the  righteous  after 
death,  as  when  the  Psalmist  utters  his  personal 
faith:" 

Thou    wilt    not    abandon    my    soul    to    the    nether-vvoild  .  .  • 
Thou  makest  me  to  know  the  path  of  life; 

which  contrasts  with  the  verse :  '^ 

For  in  death  there  is  no  remembrance  of  Thee; 
In  the  nether-world  who  will  give  Thee  thanks? 

Or  again:  ^ 

As  for  me,  I  shall  behold  Thy  face  In  righteousness; 
I  shall  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake,  with  Thy  likeness. 

But  the  belief  in  a  retribution  in  after-life  seems 
to  have  played  no  part  in  the  popular  faith.  Even 
the  later  books  of  the  Bible  do  not  breathe  any  trust 
in  personal  immortality,  but  rather  question  it. 
"  If  a  man  die,"  says  Job,  "  may  he  live  again? 
And  Ecclesiastes  proclaims  on  the  vanity  of  human 
life :  "  The  wise  man,  his  eyes  are  in  his  head;  but 
the  fool  walketh  in  darkness.  And  I  also  perceived 
that  one  event  happeneth  to  them  all."  ''  Ben  Sira 
maintains  the  biblical  outlook:  "Who  shall  give 
praise  to  the  Most  High  in  Hades,  in  place  of  them 
that  live  and  return  thanks?  Thanksgiving  perish- 
eth  from  the  dead  as  from  one  that  is  not.    All  men 

148 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

are  earth  and  ashes."  ''  The  doctrine  of  reward  in 
after-Hfe  is  plainly  stated  indeed  by  Daniel :  "  And 
many  of  them  that  sleep  In  the  dust  of  the  earth 
shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some 
to  reproaches  and  everlasting  abhorrence.  And 
they  that  are  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the 
firmament;  and  they  that  turn  the  many  to  right- 
eousness as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever."  ''  Since, 
however,  the  date  of  Daniel  is  within  the  Hellenistic 
era,  the  passage  is  no  index  of  the  Hebraic  attitude 
before  that  period,  but  only  goes  to  prove  that  in 
the  second  century  the  Palestinian  as  well  as  the 
Alexandrian  Jews  accepted  the  doctrine  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul. 

The  doctrine  of  individual  Immortality  is  fore- 
shadowed rather  than  realized  in  the  Bible.  But 
in  the  Hellenistic  literature  it  is  definite  and  promi- 
nent; and  if  not  wholly  derived  from  Hellenistic 
Influence,  it  was  certainly  nourished  by  it.  It  is 
likely  that  Persian  thought  influenced  both  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  teaching  of  immortality,  and 
the  circumstances  of  the  age  made  the  foreign  seed 
productive.  In  the  Hellenic  city-state  and  in  the 
Hebraic  kingdom  the  sufficient  reward  for  a  man's 
work  was  found  In  the  survival  of  the  nation,  and 
the  life  of  the  Individual  was  merged  In  the  com- 

149 


HELLENISM 

munlty.  But  when  the  close  national  life  was 
broken  up,  and  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  and 
Greeks  was  accomplished,  the  individual  assumed  a 
new  importance,  and  the  salvation  of  his  soul  be- 
came the  special  care  of  religion  and  reflective 
thought.''  Thus  the  promise  or  rejection  of  im- 
mortality is  a  matter  of  supreme  concern  in  Hellen- 
istic philosophy.  The  Epicureans  and  Stoics 
denied  it,  the  Pythagoreans  affirmed  it;  and  the 
Mysteries,  which  played  an  important  part  in  the 
religious  life  of  the  time,  inculcated  the  belief  by  an 
elaborate  ritual. 

For  the  Jews,  during  the  crisis  of  the  struggle 
for  Independence,  the  teaching  of  immortality  be- 
came a  new  stronghold  of  the  religious  conscious- 
ness against  the  attacks  of  materialism  and  rational- 
ism. In  Palestine,  where  it  was  established  during 
the  second  century,  it  took  the  distinctive  form  of  a 
belief  in  resurrection  of  the  body.  The  acceptance 
or  rejection  of  that  belief  was  one  of  the  main 
points  of  contention  between  the  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees.  Whether  the  Sadducees  altogether 
denied  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  or  merely  re- 
jected resurrection,  Is  not  certain."  But  it  is  sig- 
nificant that,  even  when  the  Idea  of  Individual  Im~ 

150 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

mortality  was  established,  the  Hebrew  intuition  of 
the  unity  of  body  and  soul  persisted  in  the  teaching 
of  a  second  life  for  the  body  as  well  as  for  the  soul. 
In  the  diaspora,  however,  and  more  especially  at 
Alexandria,  where  Jews  and  Greeks  were  brought 
into  contact  with  the  ancient  eschatological  teach- 
ing of  Egypt,  the  antithesis  between  body  and  soul 
was  accepted,  and  the  doctrine  that  appears  in  the 
Jewish  Hellenists  is  of  the  soul's  after-life.  The 
writer  of  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  describes  the 
soul  as  existing  before  it  is  placed  in  the  body,  which 
is  but  an  earthly  tabernacle  for  the  heavenly  Nous, 
and  must  restore  the  soul  like  a  loan.  His  doctrine 
is  still  somewhat  vague  and  tentative,  as  though  he 
were  preaching  something  that  was  not  generally 
accepted.  Yet  he  develops  the  foreshadowing  of 
the  Psalmist  to  a  clearer  belief. 

In  the  later  Hellenistic  literature,  such  as  the 
apocalyptic  Book  of  Enoch,  to  be  dated  probably 
at  the  end  of  the  first  century  B.  C.  E.,  a  vulgariza- 
tion comes  with  greater  certitude,  and  the  details 
of  the  future  life  are  depicted  with  an  assurance 
which  is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  reserve  of 
the  pseudo-Solomon.  The  distinction  which  the 
Rabbis  drew  between  the  visions  of  Isaiah  and  the 

151 


HELLENISM 

Visions  of  Ezckiel  may  be  applied  to  the  different 
conceptions  of  the  next  life  In  the  Hellenistic  age. 
The  author  of  the  apocryphal  book  speaks  as  a 
metropolitan  resident,  the  author  of  the  apocalypse 
speaks  as  a  villager. 

The  ethics  and  the  teaching  of  Immortality 
which  are  found  In  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  mani- 
fest the  Hebraic  consciousness  of  God  and  the  seri- 
ousness of  the  Hebraic  outlook  upon  life,  unim- 
paired and  strengthened  and  deepened  by  the 
knowledge  of  outside  culture  and  the  larger  Intel- 
lectual experience.  But  what  may  be  called  the 
lyrical  theology  of  the  book,  which  describes  God's 
relation  with  the  world,  blends  the  ideas  of 
philosophy  with  the  Hebraic  Images,  so  as  to  form 
conceptions  that  mark  a  new  direction  of  Hellen- 
istic Judaism.  The  Wisdom  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  outlining  the  primitive  reflection  of  the 
Hebrews  on  the  nature  of  the  divine,  pictured 
Wisdom,  as  a  link  between  God  and  man.  Wisdom 
in  her  perfection  is  alone  with  God,'°  and  exists 
with  Him  before  the  creation.  She  is  the  divine 
purpose,  the  divine  scheme  of  human  life,  and 
man's  goal  is  to  seek  the  apprehension  of  the  divine 
ideal. 

152 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

The  Lord  made  me  as  the  beginning  of  His  way, 
The  first  of  His  works  of  old. 

I    was  set  up  from  everlasting,  from  the  beginning, 
Or  ever  the  world  was. 

•»•• 

Then  I  was  by  Him,  as  a  nursling; 
And  I  was  daily  all  delight, 
Playing  always  before  Him." 

The  conception  of  Wisdom  is  somewhat  ex- 
panded in  the  book  of  Ben  Sira,  but  essentially  it 
remains  true  to  the  biblical  character.  The  author 
proclaims  her  divine  origin  in  the  opening  chapter 
of  the  book:  "  All  wisdom  cometh  from  the  Lord, 
and  is  with  Him  for  ever.  Wisdom  hath  been 
created  before  all  things,  and  the  understanding 
of  prudence  from  everlasting."  "  And  later,  in 
another  lyrical  hymn,  he  personifies  her,  and  makes 
her  speak  thus  :'^ 

Wisdom  shall  prove  herself, 

And  shall  glory  in  the  midst  of  her  people: 

I  came  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Most  High, 

And  covered  the  earth  as  a  cloud. 

I  dwelt  in  high  places, 

And  my  throne  is  in  the  pillar  of  cloud. 

He  created  me  from  the  beginning  before  the  world, 
And  I  shall  never  fail. 

In  the  holy  tabernacle  I  served  before  Him, 
And  so  was  I  established  in  Zion. 
163 


HELLENISM 

The  personification  may  be  more  elaborate 
than  in  the  Bible,  and  the  faint  suggestion  of 
metaphysics  is  creeping  Into  Hebraic  fancy,  but  the 
root  of  the  conception  is  the  Wisdom  of  Proverbs 
and  Job.  And  the  identification  of  the  Law  with 
Wisdom  Is  preserved.  He  that  hath  possession  of 
the  law  shall  obtain  wisdom."" 

A  further  development  from  poetry  to  theology 
is  made  In  the  Alexandrian  literature.  The  Hellen- 
istic Jews,  through  their  acquaintance  with  the 
Greek  philosophers,  began  to  be  conscious  of  the 
problem  raised  by  the  transcendence  and  perfection 
of  God,  on  the  one  hand,  and  His  immanence  In 
the  world,  His  constant  control  of  human  affairs, 
and  the  existence  of  evil,  on  the  other.  They 
found  in  the  Greek  schools  spiritual  doctrines  about 
the  divine  Reason  and  the  divine  Wisdom  which 
governed  and  ordered  all  things,  and  detected  In 
them  a  close  relation  with  the  Bible  teaching  of  the 
Wisdom  and  Word  of  God.  Desiring  to  display 
Judaism  as  a  philosophical  faith,  they  were  naturally 
led  to  associate  the  Hellenistic  attributes  of  Sophia 
and  Logos  with  the  Images  of  Hokmah  and  the 
Dabar.  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon  exhibits  the 
first  stage  of  this  philosophical-religious  syncretism  : 
'*  Wisdom  rcacheth  from  one  end  of  the  world  to 

154 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

the  other  with  strength,  and  ordereth  all  things  gra- 
ciously  She  Is  the  artificer  of  all  things;  more 

mobile  than  any  motion  she  pcrvadeth  and  pene- 
trateth  all  things.  For  she  is  a  breath  of  the 
power  of  God,  and  a  clear  effluence  of  His  glory. 
Therefore  can  no  defiled  thing  fall  into  her.  For 
she  is  the  brightness  of  the  everlasting  light,  the 
unspotted  mirror  of  the  power  of  God,  and  the 
image  of  His  goodness.  And  she,  being  one,  hath 
power  to  do  all  things,  and  remaining  in  herself, 
reneweth  all  things.  And  in  all  ages  entering  into 
holy  souls,  she  maketh  them  friends  of  God  and 
prophets."  " 

Elsewhere,  she  is  depicted  as  manifest  in  the  pil- 
lars of  fire  and  cloud.  The  author  of  Proverbs  had 
indeed  personified  Wisdom  ''  building  her  house,'"* 
but  the  imagery  of  the  Alexandrian  author  is  dif- 
ferent in  kind  as  well  as  degree.  He  attributes 
to  "  Sophia "  the  properties  which  the  Greek 
philosophers  attached  to  the  monistic  impersonal 
principle  that  they  held  to  govern  the  universe. 
Consciously  he  applies  the  intellectual  ideas  of 
Hellenism  to  the  poetical  ideas  of  Hebraism,  and 
fuses  the  two.  So,  again,  when  he  pictures  the 
Logos  or  Word  executing  judgment  upon  the 
Egyptians,  though  his  imagery  is  here  Hebraic,  the 

155 


HELLENISM 

personified  conception  of  a  divine  Instrument  marks 
an  advance  from  primitive  theology  toward  the 
philosophical  teaching  which  became  the  distinctive 
feature  of  the  Alexandrian  school.  "  Thine 
almighty  Word  leaped  from  Heaven,  out  of  Thy 
royal  throne,  as  a  fierce  man  of  war  into  the  midst 
of  destruction,  and  brought  Thy  unfeigned  com- 
mandment as  a  sharp  sword,  and  standing  filled 
all  things  with  death,  and  It  touched  the  heaven, 
but  It  stood  upon  the  earth."  "  He  associates  the 
word  by  which  God  made  all  things  with  the  Wis- 
dom. The  one  like  the  other  Is  the  divine  instru- 
ment, and  is  on  its  way  to  being  treated  as  a  separate 
being. 

Contact  with  Greek  philosophy  has  tended  to 
deepen  the  Hebrew  consciousness  of  the  author  of 
the  Wisdom,  nor  does  he  feel  the  necessity  to  ex- 
plain or  allegorize  away  anything  In  the  Scriptures, 
Among  a  considerable  section  of  Hellenistic 
Jewry,  however,  the  influence  of  Greek  culture  did 
tend  to  the  neglect  of  the  Torah,  and  to  exclusive 
attention  to  the  hidden  meanings.  The  need  was 
felt  for  conciliating  religion  with  philosophy;  and 
in  order  to  effect  this  object,  the  Bible  was  made 
the  pretext  for  all  kinds  of  fancies  and  speculations, 
and  the  obligation  of  the  Law  was  rejected.     The 

156 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

Alexandrian  Jews  believed  that  all  wisdom  was 
contained  In  Israel's  divine  revelation.  Therefore 
the  philosophical  tenets  which  they  had  been  wont 
to  admire  must  be  hidden  there  and  must  have 
originated  in  the  Bible.  Allegorical  Interpretation 
which  aimed  at  extracting  doctrines  from  the  text 
that  were  not  to  be  found  in  its  literal  sense  was 
the  distinctive  literary  product  of  Alexandrian 
Judaism.  The  master  of  this  Interpretation  and 
the  chief  figure  of  Hellenistic-Jewish  philosophy  is 
Phllo-Jud^us,  who  is  likewise  the  highest  type  of 
Jewish  missionary.  Philo,  Indeed,  who  lived  from 
about  40  B.  C.  E.  to  40  C.  E.,  sums  up  Hellenistic 
Judaism,  representing  both  its  strength  and  its 
weakness,  its  splendid  aims  and  its  latent  dangers, 
its  groundwork  of  Hebraism  and  Its  unconscious 
adoption  of  incompatible  Hellenistic  conceptions. 

Allegorical  interpretation  is  an  art  peculiarly 
fitted  to  flourish  in  a  society  which  is  harmonizing 
the  cultures  of  difterent  ages  and  diilPerent  peoples, 
since  its  purport  is  to  trace  a  more  abstract  and  a 
profounder  doctrine  beneath  a  simple  record. 
Allegory  is  a  literary  device  by  which  some  ulterior 
purpose  is  conveyed  in  the  form  of  a  story;  alle- 
gorical interpretation  is  the  converse  method,  by 
which  a  secondary  meaning  is  read  into  a  story. 
"  157 


HELLENISM 

Allegory  has  been  a  regular  habit  of  thought 
among  the  Oriental  peoples,  and  the  Bible  shows 
not  a  few  traces  of  it;  but  the  philosophical  inter- 
pretation of  ancient  records  as  allegory  is  essentially 
the  product  of  a  sophisticated  community.  The 
allegorist  is  an  apologist  seeking  to  bring  out  an 
agreement  between  his  ancient  traditions  and  the 
culture  of  his  environment.  There  must  be  a 
conscious  cleavage  between  the  two,  and  a  conscious 
desire  to  bridge  it,  before  allegorism  can  flourish.** 
Its  pursuit  was  stimulated  at  Alexandria  by  the 
advance  of  Greek  thought;  but  it  is  not  perhaps 
altogether  fanciful  to  suggest  that  the  influence  of 
the  Egyptian  monuments  favored  the  habit  of 
allegorical  interpretations  in  the  Egyptian  com- 
munity. It  is  the  principle  of  ancient  Egyptian 
thought  that  all  ideas  are  represented  by  a  material 
symbol  or  hieroglyph;  and  to  those  living  amongst 
the  wonders  of  Egypt  it  became  natural  to  regard 
the  concrete  as  the  symbol  of  the  abstract. 

Alexandrian  Jews  acquired  from  their  Hellen- 
istic environments  not  only  the  intellectual  culture 
which  they  desired  to  harmonize,  but  also  the 
machinery  of  conciliation.  The  Stoics  applied 
allegorical  exegesis  to  Homer  and  Hesiod  in  order 
to    deduce    their    philosophical    tenets    from    the 

158 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

poems.  The  neo-Pythagoreans  likewise,  who  had 
their  chief  seat  at  Alexandria,  were  prone  to  alle- 
gory. From  these  Greek  models  Philo  and  his 
predecessors  learnt  the  art  of  reading  philosophy 
into  the  books  of  Moses.  Allegorical  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Bible  was  not,  however,  the  exclusive 
pursuit  of  the  Alexandrian  Jews;  it  may  well  be 
that,  while  they  derived  their  methods  from  their 
pagan  contemporaries,  they  inherited  the  seeds 
of  the  habit  from  their  fathers.  The  oldest 
halakic  Midrashim,  such  as  Sifre  and  Mekilta, 
make  mention  several  times  of  a  certain  school 
of  interpreters  called  niDiu'T  ^K^nn;'^  and  the  in- 
terpretations quoted  in  their  name  are  regularly 
allegorical  or  rather  symbolical.  The  meaning 
of  Reshumot  appears  to  be  signs  or  symbols,  and 
the  peculiar  method  of  the  Dorshe  Reshumot  was 
to  see  in  the  words  of  the  Scriptures  symbols  which 
should  be  taken  in  a  figurative  sense,  not  in  their 
plain  and  literal  meaning.  The  method  is  also 
known  as  Mashal.  Such  interpretations  of 
Scripture  go  back  to  the  prophets  of  the  Bible  them- 
selves. Thus  Hosea**  says  of  Jacob's  struggle  with 
the  angel  that  it  was  a  struggle  in  prayer;  and  Micah 
(7.  20)  takes  the  patriarchs  as  types  or  symbols, 
Abraham  of  kindness,  Jacob  of  truth. 

159 


HELLENISM 


It  Is  from  these  simple  beginnings  that  the 
Dorshe  Hamurot  seem  to  have  developed.  When 
they  found  a  passage  In  the  Bible  that  In  Its  literal 
meaning  conveyed  anthropomorphic  ideas,  or  when 
they  could  point  some  higher  moral  teaching  by 
taking  the  concrete  words  of  the  Bible  as  tokens  of 
something  spiritual,  they  introduced  allegorical 
Interpretations.  They  explained  the  verse  In 
Exodus :  "  And  they  went  three  days  In  the  wilder- 
ness, and  found  no  water,"  *"  to  mean  that  the 
Israelites  did  not  find  the  words  of  the  Law,  which 
are  symbolized  by  water,  as  it  Is  said,  "  Ho, 
every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  for  water."  "  So, 
too,  In  the  Exodus  verse  which  follows:  "  And  the 
Lord  showed  him  a  tree,  and  he  cast  it  into  the 
waters,"  ''  they  Interpreted  "  tree  "  as  the  Torah ;  as 
It  Is  written:  "  She  (the  Torah)  is  a  tree  of  life  to 
them  that  lay  hold  upon  her."  *"  It  Is  noteworthy 
that  Philo,  interpreting  the  same  verse,"  explains 
the  tree  as  a  medicine  for  the  soul,  causing  It  to 
love  labor;  and  several  times  in  his  allegories  he 
expounds  water  as  a  symbol  for  the  divine  Word  or 
Logos." 

Palestinian  and  Alexandrian  allegorlsts  alike 
sought  for  symbolical  values  In  the  proper  names 
of  the  Bible,  and  were  not  unwilling  to  make  a 

160 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

change  in  the  word  of  the  text  if  they  might  thereby 
extract  a  lesson  from  it.  The  Dorshe  Reshumot 
interpreted  Rephidim  (the  place  where  Amalek 
fought  with  Israel)  as  on^  ]rQ-i ",  the  weakness 
of  the  hands.  The  passage  then  suggests  that 
Amalek  attacked  Israel  because  of  their  neglect  of 
the  Law.  And  in  the  Ethics  of  the  Fathers '"  the 
names  of  two  stages  in  the  journeying  of  the  lsv?it\- 
ites^'niDJaSK^SnjroiSx^SmnjDJODi  are  given  a  symbolic 
value :  ''  Whosoever  labors  in  the  Torah,  behold, 
he  shall  be  exalted;  as  it  is  said:  '  From  the  gift  of 
the  Law  man  attains  to  the  heritage  of  God,  and  by 
that  heritage  he  reaches  heaven.'  "  Philo  regu- 
larly finds  a  significance  in  biblical  names;  and  as 
he  traces  it  from  the  Hebrew  form  of  the  word, 
he  must  be  drawing  upon  a  Hebrew  and  Palestinian 
source  for  this  part  of  his  allegorizing.  Israel  is 
"  the  man  who  sees  God  " ;  *"  Reuben  "  the  son  of 
insight  ";  "  Jerusalem  ''  the  sight  or  threshold  of 
peace."  " 

The  primitive  allegorical  system,  then,  from 
which  the  development  at  Alexandria  appears  to 
have  sprung,  was  the  interpretation  of  the  words 
of  the  Torah  as  symbols.  Whether  the  Pales- 
tinian school  devised  certain  rules  for  the  alle- 
gorical commentary  which  were  handed  down  to 

161 


HELLENISM 

the  Alexandrians  Is  less  certain;  but  some  canons 
are  undoubtedly  common  to  them  and  to  Phllo. 
Yet  while  allegorical  Interpretation  of  the  Bible 
had  its  counterpart  in  the  Palestinian  schools,  the 
dangers  of  its  excessive  use  were  recognized  there, 
and  its  progress  was  checked.  Mashal,  indeed,  is 
included  among  the  methods  of  haggadic  interpre- 
tation in  the  rules  composed  by  Rabbi  Ellezer;  but 
it  is  added  that  the  method  is  only  to  be  used  in  in- 
terpreting passages  which  do  not  state  a  law  or 
commandment.  Allegorical  skill  was  not  to 
whittle  away  the  Torah,  however  laudable  it  was 
in  relation  to  other  parts  of  the  Bible.  According 
to  the  author  of  the  treatise,  ascribed  to  Philo, 
"  That  every  good  man  is  free,"  the  Essenes  were 
distinguished  by  their  habit  of  treating  the  words 
of  the  Law  as  symbols;  but  In  this,  as  in  other  re- 
spects, they  betrayed  the  influence  of  foreign 
standards,  and  were  not  true  to  the  principles  of 
Palestinian  Judaism.  The  stress  remained  in 
Palestine  on  the  literal  sense  of  the  Hebraic  tradi- 
tion; in  Alexandria  a  new  emphasis  was  laid  on  the 
allegory  and  the  spiritual  Interpretation  of  the  Law. 
The  fact  that  a  large  part  of  the  Mosaic  civil  and 
criminal  law  was  not  practically  operative  in  the 

162 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

diaspora  doubtless  assisted  the  tendency  to  look  for 
moral  philosophy  beneath  the  legislation. 

Phllo  is  the  only  Alexandrian-Jewish  writer  who 
has  left  a  systematic  allegorical  commentary  on  the 
Bible;  but  he  refers  frequently  to  predecessors  who 
composed  moralizing  interpretations  of  ritual  com- 
mands, and  who  considered  the  utterance  of  the 
Law  to  be  the  "  manifest  symbols  of  things  in- 
visible, and  hints  of  things  inexpressible."  "  Several 
scholars  of  recent  times  held  that  he  was  merely 
the  culminating  point  of  an  Alexandrian-Jewish 
school  of  philosophers;  but  later  research  has 
caused  a  modification  of  this  idea.  Of  definitely 
philosophical  writers  there  is  no  trace  before  Philo; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  large  floating  body  of  alle- 
gorical teaching  existed,  in  the  form  of  an  Alexan- 
drian Midrash,  as  it  may  be  called,  which  he  worked 
Into  his  system.  This  Midrash  may  have  sprung 
from  the  interpretations  of  preachers  In  the  syna- 
gogue sounding  the  spiritual  and  ethical  depths  of 
the  biblical  reading  of  the  week;  and  Phllo's 
achievement  was  to  weld  these  occasional  utterances 
and  scattered  traditions  Into  a  philosophical  doc- 
trine. His  work  Is  certainly  not  very  systematic;  it 
Is  largely  a  collection  of  homiletlcal  addresses, 
united  In  the  form  of  a  continuous  allegorical  com- 

163 


HELLENISM 

mentary  on  the  books  of  Moses ;  but  It  Is  the  nearest 
approach  which  a  Jewish  writer  made  In  the  ancient 
world  to  an  ordered  philosophy  of  Judaism.  It 
is  fortunate,  then,  that  a  considerable  part  of  It 
remains — greater  In  volume  Indeed  than  the  rest 
of  the  Hellenlstic-Jewlsh  literature  together — so 
that  we  can  form  a  fairly  complete  Idea  of  his 
teaching  and  of  the  outlook  of  the  society  for  which 
he  wrote. 

Philo  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Greek 
writers  of  his  time.  He  commanded  the  whole  of 
the  classical  literature,  and  he  gathered  Ideas  from 
every  philosophical  school.  Born  of  an  aristocratic 
Jewish  family  at  Alexandria — his  brother  was 
ethnarch  of  the  community — from  his  youth  up- 
wards he  was  devoted  to  study;  and  In  his  desire  to 
perfect  himself  and  attain  to  the  knowledge  of 
God,  he  appears  to  have  joined  for  a  time  one  of 
those  ascetic  brotherhoods  of  Therapeutae  or 
devotees,  who,  following  Pythagorean  examples, 
eschewed  all  civil  concerns,  and  sought  to  obtain 
bliss  by  sublimating  the  soul  In  ecstasy.  *'  I 
feasted,"  he  says  In  characteristic  prose-poetry, 
"  with  the  truly  blessed  mind  which  is  the  object  of 
all  desire,  communing  continually  in  joy  with  the 
Divine  Word  and  Doctrine."     Philo's  understand- 

164 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

ing  of  philosophy  was  to  acquire  the  knowledge  of 
God  for  himself  and  to  spread  it  among  his  fel- 
lows. He  was  true  in  purpose  to  the  Hebraic 
spirit  which  regards  the  knowledge  of  God  as  the 
end  of  wisdom,  but  in  his  mental  equipment  and  in 
the  form  of  his  thought  he  was  some  way  re- 
moved from  the  type  of  Jewish  sage.  He  must  have 
received  the  Greek  secular  education  {v  cykukAios 
TraiSeia)  which  included  Greek  literature  and  the 
sciences;  "  and  he  passed  on  to  the  study  of  Greek 
philosophy.  While  it  is  probable  that  he  knew 
some  Hebrew,  it  is  certain  that  it  was  at  best  a 
foreign  language  to  him.  He  never  wrote  in  it, 
and  he  habitually  studied  the  Scriptures  in  the 
Greek.  He  knew  the  traditional  teachings  of  his 
people,  likewise,  which  had  been  gathered  around 
the  Scriptures,  through  their  Greek  version,  and 
thus  the  Hebraic  inheritance,  which  formed  the 
groundwork  of  his  system,  was  moulded  by  Hellen- 
istic association.  Occasionally,  even,  he  contrasts 
the  Hellenic  (Alexandrian)  Jews  with  the  bar- 
barian Hebrews,  i.  e.,  the  Palestinians."  Doubt- 
less in  such  passages  he  is  addressing  pagans,  but 
the  distinction  is  none  the  less  significant.  Yet  the 
literary  form  of  his  works  corresponds  with  the 
Jewish  Midrash  and  not  with  the  Greek  philo- 

165 


HELLENISM 

sophlcal  treatise;  save  for  one  or  two  minor  writ- 
ings In  the  form  of  Greek  dialogues,  his  allegories 
are  all  strung  on  biblical  texts. 

Unfortunately,  the  best  of  the  Hellenistic  culture 
of  Alexandria  In  Philo's  time  was  decadent  and 
confused.  The  purity  of  the  Hellenic  thought  no 
less  than  of  the  Hellenic  language,  despite  the  in- 
fluence of  the  great  Museum  of  Alexandria,  had 
been  Irreparably  lost  in  Egypt  through  the  ad- 
mixture of  Egyptian  and  Oriental  elements,  which 
contrived  to  veil  In  mystery  what  they  could  not 
explain  by  reason.  The  moral  sublimity  of  the 
Hebraic  imagination  was  paramount  in  Philo's 
system,  so  that  he  prevailed  to  a  great  extent  over 
the  intellectual  debasement  of  his  environment,  and 
welded  his  ideas  Into  a  remarkable  philosophy  of 
monotheism.  Yet  dangerous  leanings  toward 
theosophy  lurked  in  his  expression  and  in  his  out- 
look. These  leanings,  derived  from  contact  with 
the  surrounding  culture,  had  already  led  many  of 
his  contemporaries  away  from  a  pure  and  simple 
Judaism,  and  they  were  so  exaggerated  by  the  gen- 
erations that  followed  him  that  his  works  became 
the  buttress  of  heresy.  Thus  he  represents  the 
acme  of  the  Hellenistic  development  of  Judaism; 
but,  as  is  the  fate  both  of  nature's  work  and  human 

166 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

creation,  the  mature   fruit  conceals  the  seeds  of 
decay. 

Philo's  work  has  two  aspects.  On  the  one  hand, 
he  formulates  a  Jewish  system  of  philosophy  for 
those  Hellenistic  Jews  who  were  attracted  by  the 
Intellectual  ideas  of  the  Greek  teachers  and  who 
tended  to  reject  Judaism  because  it  seemed  to  lack 
an  equally  high  doctrine.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
presents  Judaism  to  the  Greek-speaking  world  as  a 
philosophical  system  of  religion,  In  order  that  he 
may  attract  to  It  the  earnest  spirits  who  were  dis- 
contented alike  with  the  religion  and  the  philosophy 
of  the  time.  Two  principal  motives  again  un- 
derlay his  allegorical  habit.  He  desired,  in  the 
first  place,  to  explain  away  the  biblical  passages 
where  anthropomorphic  expressions  were  applied 
to  God,  and  to  find  a  universal  value  In  such 
passages  as,  In  their  literal  meaning,  described  the 
details  of  a  tribal  history  or  the  minutiae  of  a 
ritual;  In  the  second,  to  draw  from  the  Holy 
Scriptures  doctrines  of  ethics  and  psychology  and 
theology  such  as  the  Greek  schools  had  elaborated. 
Some  Alexandrian  Jews  sought  rather  for  physical 
and  astronomical  wisdom;  but  Philo  opposes  them, 
and  substitutes  for  their  explanations  a  more 
spiritual  exegesis,** 

167 


HELLENISM 

He  describes  three  diverse  attitudes  toward  the 
Law,  which  were  held  at  Alexandria  in  his  day. 
Some  regarded  it  as  merely  traditional  custom  and 
the  Bible  as  a  literary  record  which  constituted  the 
"  mythology  "  of  the  Hebrews.     Others  despised 
the  positive  Law  as  such,  and  derived  from  it  a 
purely  spiritual  cult  and  from  the  biblical  narrative 
purely  spiritual  teaching.    Finally  there  were  those 
who  combined  respect  for  the  positive  Law  and 
the  spiritual  cult,  observing  the  commandm^ents,  but 
seeking  by  means  of    the  allegorical  method  an 
inner  and  profounder  sense."    Elsewhere  he  associ- 
ates the  first  class  with  the  Ammonites,  the  second 
with  the  Moabites,  and  the  third  with  the  pious 
sage  Melchizedek.'"     Philo  attacks  the  first  class, 
.  the  extreme  literalists  who  attend  only  to  externals, 
and   actually   derive   polytheism    from    the    Holy 
Scriptures.     They   included   those   who   took   the 
anthropomorphic  expressions  about  God  to  justify 
pagan  worship.      Such    perhaps    also    were    the 
Alexandrian  conciliators,  who  tried  to  impress  the 
Hellenized  Egyptian  by  ascribing  to  Joseph  and 
Moses  the  exploits  and  attributes  of  the  Greek 
heroes.      Philo   attacks  likewise   the   second  class 
who    anticipated   the    antinomian   outlook   of   the 
Christians,  and  menaced,  as  he  clearly  saw,  the  in- 

168 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

tegrlty  and  purity  of  the  Jewish  religion.     In  a 
famous  passage  he  thus  speaks  of  them : ''   ''  Such 
men  I  would  blame  for  the  shallowness  of  their 
mind.    For  they  ought  to  give  good  heed  to  both — 
to  the  accurate  investigation  of  the  unseen  meaning, 
but  also  to  the  blameless  observance  of  the  visible 
letter.  But  now,  as  if  they  were  living  by  themselves 
in  a  desert,   and  were  souls  without  bodies,   and 
knew  nothing  of  city  or  village  or  house  or  inter- 
course with  men,  they  despise  all  that  seems  valu- 
able to  the  many,  and  search  for  bare  and  naked 
truth  as  it  is  in  itself.  Such  people  the  sacred  Scrip- 
ture teaches  to  give  good  heed  to  a  good  reputation, 
and  to  abolish  none  of  those  customs  which  greater 
and  more  inspired  men  than  we  instituted  in  the 
past.     For  because  the  seventh  day  teaches  us  sym- 
bolically concerning  the  power  of  the  uncreated 
God,  and  the  inactivity  of  the  creature,  we  must  not 
therefore  abolish  its  ordinances,  so  as  to  light  a  fire, 
or  till  the  ground,  or  bear  a  burden,  or  prosecute  a 
lawsuit,  or  demand  the  restoration  of  a  deposit,  or 
exact  the  repayment  of  a  loan,  or  do  any  other 
thing,  which  on  week-days  is  allowed.     Because 
the  festivals  are  symbols  of  spiritual  joy  and  of  our 
gratitude  to  God,  we  must  not  therefore  give  up  the 
fixed  assemblies  at  the  proper  seasons  of  the  year. 


HELLENISM 

Nor  because  circumcision  symbolizes  the  excision 
of  all  lusts  and  passions,  and  the  destruction  of  the 
impious  opinion  according  to  which  the  mind 
imagines  that  it  is  itself  capable  of  production,  must 
we  therefore  abolish  the  law  of  fleshly  circumcision. 
We  should  have  to  neglect  the  service  of  the 
temple,  and  a  thousand  other  things,  if  we  were  to 
restrict  ourselves  only  to  the  allegorical  or  symbolic 
sense.  That  sense  resembles  the  soul,  the  other 
sense  the  body.  Just  as  we  must  be  careful  of  the 
body,  as  the  house  of  the  soul,  so  must  we  give  heed 
to  the  letter  of  the  written  laws."  Elsewhere  he 
says  in  reference  to  the  commandments:  '^  Thou 
shah  not  add  thereto  {the  Law),  nor  diminish 
from  it.^  If  we  add  anything  great  or  small  to 
piety,  the  queen  of  virtues,  or  take  anything  away 
from  it,  we  mar  it  and  change  its  form.  Addition 
will  engender  superstition,  and  diminution  impiety, 
and  true  piety  will  disappear Fur- 
ther Moses  lays  down  another  command :  Thou 
shalt  not  remove  the  houndary-stone  of  thy  neigh- 
bour's landmark^  which  thy  ancestors  have  set  up."' 
This,  methinks,  does  not  refer  merely  to  inherit- 
ances and  the  boundaries  of  land,  but  it  is  ordained 
with  a  view  to  the  preservation  of  old  customs. 
For  customs  are  unwritten  laws,  the  decrees  of  men 

170 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

of  old  ....  engraved  upon  the  soul  of  the 
generations  who  through  the  ages  maintain  the 
chosen  community."  " 

Philo  foresees  the  chaos  that  the  Innovators  In 
religion  and  those  who  break  from  tradition  will 
produce.  Chaos  In  fact  already  loomed  and 
pointed  to  an  Internal  disease.  The  Jewish  sects 
that  existed  In  Palestine  had  their  counterpart  In 
Alexandria,  with  this  distinction  that  the  influence 
of  Greek  philosophy  upon  them  was  stronger  and 
more  direct.  Among  Philo's  apologetic  works 
was  a  treatise  on  the  Essenes,  of  which  Euseblus, 
the  Church  historian,  has  preserved  a  few  frag- 
ments. Another  treatise  has  come  down  to  us 
in  his  name,  under  the  title  "  On  the  Contem- 
plative Life,"  which  describes  the  life  and  doctrines 
of  a  peculiar  Alexandrian  offshoot,  the  Thera- 
peutae.  Several  scholars  claim  that  they  were  a 
Christian  sect,  but  the  better  opinion  is  that  they 
were  a  local  development  of  the  Essenes.  The 
book  describes  the  observances  of  a  monastic  com- 
munity which  lived  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Mareotis, 
near  Alexandria.  Many  authorities  are  of  opinion 
that  It  belongs  to  a  later  date  than  the  time  of 
Phllo,  and  strong  philological  grounds  militate 
against  his  authorship.  But  there  is  no  reason  to 
171 


HELLENISM 

doubt  that  a  Jewish  sect  of  the  nature  described 
flourished  in  Egypt  during  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era.  Their  way  of  life  resembled  that 
of  the  Essenes,  but  was  carried  to  a  further  degree 
of  contemplation.  They  share  with  the  Essenes  the 
dualistic  view  of  body  and  soul  and  the  affection 
for  the  secret  doctrine  which  underlies  the  literal 
word  of  the  Scriptures.  The  author,  after  describ- 
ing how  they  pray  twice  a  day,  speaks  thus  of  their 
learning:  ''The  interval  between  morning  and 
evening  they  devote  wholly  to  the  contemplation 
and  practice  of  virtue;  they  take  up  the  sacred 
writings,  and  philosophize  about  them,  Investi- 
gating the  allegories  of  their  national  wisdom;  for 
they  look  upon  the  literal  expressions  as  symbols  of 
some  secret  meanings  of  nature  which  are  intended 
to  be  conveyed  In  these  figurative  forms.  They 
have  also  writings  of  ancient  sages  who,  having  in- 
stituted this  or  that  doctrine,  have  left  behind  them 
many  records  of  the  allegorical  interpretations. 
These  they  take  as  a  model  and  Imitate  the  general 
fashion  of  their  teaching.  They  do  not,  however, 
occupy  themselves  solely  In  contemplation,  but  com- 
pose psalms  and  hymns  to  God  In  every  possible 
kind  of  metre  and  melody.  Thus  during  six  days 
each  of  the  members,  retiring  into  solitude,  philoso- 

172 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

phizes  by  himself  in  one  of  their  so-called  retreats, 
never  going,  never  even  looking  outside  the  thresh- 
old of  the  outer  court."  At  the  sacred  assembly  on 
the  sabbath — "  the  day  of  perfect  holiness  and  the 
most  complete  festival  " — one  of  the  elders  inter- 
preted with  profound  care  the  meaning  of  the  laws. 
Our  author  recounts  also  the  nature  of  their  com- 
munions, and  especially  the  rites  with  which  they 
celebrated  the  feast  of  Pentecost  which,  because  of 
its  association  with  the  number  50,  was  treated  with 
particular  veneration. 

The  Therapeutae,  like  the  Essenes,  left  no 
permanent  trace  on  Jewish  life,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  their  semi-monastic  communities  were  the 
prototype  of  a  large  development  in  the  Christian 
Church.  The  emphasis  on  individual  salvation  and 
the  breaking  away  from  the  national  life  and  the 
national  law,  which  are  their  predominant  charac- 
teristics, and  are  the  resultant  of  the  fusion  of 
Hellenistic  ethics  with  Jewish  religion,  cut  off  these 
sects  from  the  Jewish  people,  and  led  to  their  ab- 
sorption into  the  anti-national  Christian  body,  so 
soon  as  it  had  made  itself  distinct. 

In  passages  which  are  undoubtedly  genuine, 
Phllo  reproaches  the  ascetics  "  for  their  savage  en- 
thusiasm." ^  *'  Truth,"  he  says,  "  will  properly 
la  173 


HELLENISM 

blame  those  who  without  discrimination  shun  all 
concern  with  the  life  of  the  State."  "*  Disapprov- 
ing both  of  excess  of  spirituality  and  of  excess  of 
religious  exercise,  he  was  the  champion  of  those 
who  were  conservative  in  the  observance  of  the 
national  law,  and  at  the  same  time  were  anxious  to 
extract  from  Holy  Writ  philosophical  and  mystical 
doctrines,  who  prized  both  the  literal  and  alle- 
gorical sense.  He  aspired  to  universaHze  the 
Jewish  law  by  showing  that  its  individual  precepts 
embody  the  highest  ethical  teaching,  and  in  their 
entirety  constitute  the  law  of  nature,  and  to  uni- 
versalize the  Hebrew  Scriptures  by  showing  that 
the  historical  narrative  of  the  Mosaic  books 
enshrines  a  sublime  philosophy. 

Philo  gave  a  new  bent  to  the  Greek  philosophy 
which  he  assimilated.  His  purpose  was  not  to 
make  an  intellectual  analysis  of  things  or  a  scientific 
investigation  of  nature,  but  to  bring  about  a  union 
of  the  human  soul  with  God.  True  to  the  cardinal 
principle  of  Jewish  monotheism,  he  regards  God 
as  the  one  reality,  the  one  cause,  the  one  goal.  All 
thought  and  all  being  are  His  direct  creation:  the 
universe  is  brought  into  existence  by  His  will;  the 
human  soul  is  an  emanation  from  His  spirit; 
human    knowledge    is    an    inspiration    from    His 

174 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

power.  "  Through  God,  God  is  known,  for  He  Is 
His  own  hght";"  and  as  man's  soul  and 
knowledge  are  from  God,  so  man's  final  good  is  to 
be  joined  with  God.  Man  could  attain  this  state  in 
superhuman  ecstasy.  The  Hebraic  doctrine  of  the 
Shekinah,  the  divine  Presence,  which  possessed 
the  saint,  is  clothed  by  Philo  with  a  Greek  dress. 
"  When  the  divine  light  shines  upon  the  mortal 
soul,  the  mortal  light  sinks;  our  reason  is  driven 
out  at  the  approach  of  the  divine  spirit."  ''  The 
various  aspects  of  Greek  thought  which  form  the 
material  of  his  system  are  transformed  into  a  re- 
ligious philosophy  by  this  root  idea,  of  God  and  His 
relation  to  man.  At  the  same  time  the  Hebraic 
principles  of  his  theology  are  largely  modified 
through  the  influence  of  Greek  conceptions.  He 
contrives  to  show  how  the  transcendental  God  who 
is  utterly  spiritual  and  incorporeal  comes  into  rela- 
tion with  the  physical  world  and  the  human  soul, 
and  hence  his  whole  system  depends  on,  or  rather 
develops  into,  a  doctrine  about  the  divine  nature. 

The  seeds  of  a  formal  theology,  which  are  con- 
tained in  the  Wisdom  books  of  the  Bible,  and 
frurCtified  in  Alexandrian  soil,  come  to  full  fruition 
In  his  mind.  His  outstanding  conception  is  the 
Word  or  the  Logos,  which  is  the  instrument  of 

175 


HELLENISM 

God's  activity  and  His  immanent  manifestation  in 
the  universe.     It  is  impossible  to  pick  out  any  clear 
and   definite   conception   of   the   Logos    and   say: 
"  This  is  Philo's  notion  of  it."     It  is  described  in 
endless  metaphors  and  associated  with  a  number  of 
attributes,  now  as  the  Creator  of  the  universe,  now 
as  its  noetic  model,  now  as  its  soul;  as  the  seat  of 
the  Ideas  or  immaterial  patterns  after  which  all 
material  things  are  created,   and   as  the  law   of 
Nature   binding   all   things   together   through    its 
various  forces;  as  the  universal  rule  of  conduct,  the 
revealed  Torah,  which  guides  the  whole  of  human- 
ity; as  the  divine  effluence  in  the  soul,  which  it  is 
man's  highest  function  to  cultivate,  and  as  the  prin- 
ciple of  conscience  which  is  placed  in  us  to  guide, 
to  warn,  and  to  reprove.     In  other  passages  it  is 
personified  as  the  high  priest,  the  heavenly  man, 
the   intercessor,   the   offspring  of   God,    and   His 
wisdom,  in  others  it  is  identified  with  Melchizedek 
and     the     Manna.      The    presentation    combines 
Hebraic  and  Hellenic  concepts  and,  in  addition,  a 
number  of  floating  ideas  of  divine  intermediaries 
which  were   derived   from   the   ancient  Eg>^ptian 
religion  and  were  current  in  Alexandria. 

Philo  indeed  constantly  asserts  the  perfect  unity 
of   God.       Monotheism    is   the   key-note    of   his 

176 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

philosophy;  but  In  his  desire  to  provide  stages  in 
the  upward  march  of  the  human  soul  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Godhead,  and  under  the  influence 
of  the  culture  around  him,  he  elaborated  this  half- 
poetic,  half-philosophical  development  of  the 
divine  instrument.  The  Platonic  system  of 
philosophy  forms  the  dominant  elemxcnt  in  his  syn- 
cretism. It  was  said  about  a  century  later :  "  Either 
Philo  Platonizes  or  Plato  Philonizes  " ;  and  there 
is  in  truth  a  profound  sympathy  between  the  Greek 
and  the  Jewish  philosopher.  "  The  aim  of  Plato's 
philosophy,"  said  Macaulay,  "  is  to  exalt  man  into 
a  God  ";  the  aim  of  Philo's  theology  is  to  bring 
man  into  perfect  communion  with  the  one  God. 
The  greatest  philosophical  genius  of  the  Hellenes 
possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  Hebraic  spirit 
which  Is  zealous  for  God  and  makes  for  righteous- 
ness. The  religious  and  spiritual  aspects  of  Plato's 
teaching  had,  however,  been  neglected  for  three 
centuries;  they  were  made  fruitful  by  the  contact 
of  the  Hebrew  mind.  As  in  nature  a  plant  Is 
fertilized  by  pollen  brought  from  a  strange  flower, 
so  In  human  culture  a  thought  of  one  people  Is  often 
made  fruitful  by  the  infusion  of  the  ideas  of 
another. 

177 


HELLENISM 

The  cosmology  of  Philo  is  based  on  the  Platonic 
idealism,  i.  e.,  the  doctrine  that  between  the  su- 
preme Being  and  the  material  world  a  kingdom 
exists  of  spiritual  archetypes,  eternal,  incorporeal, 
recognized  by  mind  alone,  which  preceded  the  crea- 
tion of  the  material  world."  He  who  denies  their 
existence  is  impious  and  godless.  Sometimes 
Philo  declares  that  the  whole  of  this  ideal  world 
is  contained  in  the  divine  Logos  which  orders  all 
things;*"  sometimes  he  equates  it  with  the  angels 
in  the  Bible.  He  associates  with  the  Platonic 
Ideas,  which  are  embraced  altogether  in  the  Word, 
features  taken  from  the  pantheistic  system  of  the 
Stoics.  By  the  school  of  the  Porch  the  divine 
substance  was  presented  as  the  Logos  or  reason: 
and  syncretizing  this  with  the  Hebrew  dabar,  he  at- 
tributed to  the  divine  power  some  of  the  material 
qualities  which  the  Stoics  attached  to  their  panthe- 
istic principle.  He  speaks  of  it  as  most  mobile  and 
fiery,  stretched  through  the  universe  and  using  an 
intense  motion;  in  one  or  two  places  he  describes  it 
as  the  seed-bearing  Logos.  These  expressions  are 
of  course  metaphorical,  but  they  illustrate  his 
tendency  to  adopt  images  and  doctrines  from 
schools  to  whose  general  outlook  he  was  funda- 
mentally antagonistic.     From  the  Stoics,  too,  he 

178 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

adopted  a  distinction  between  the  thought  in  the 
mind  and  its  expression  in  words,  the  first  being 
known  as  the  stored-up  Logos;  the  second  as  the 
enunciated  Logos.  Elaborating  this  idea,  he  was 
led  to  personify  the  Logos  as  God's  first-born  son. 
The  change  of  the  patriarch's  name  from  Abram — 
exalted  father — to  Abraham'' — father  of  sound, 
suggests  this  allegory:  "  If  we  are  to  explain  ac- 
curately, it  is  plain  that  the  mind  is  the  natural 
father  of  the  uttered  word,  because  it  is  the  prop- 
erty of  the  father  to  beget,  and  the  word  is  begotten 
from  the  mind."  From  this  analysis  of  speech,  it 
was  a  natural  step  to  speak  of  the  creative  word  of 
God  as  the  divine  offspring.  The  passage  exempli- 
fies the  poetic  and  personifying  character  of  Philo's 
allegorical  interpretations  which  had  its  dangerous 
aspect.  Max  Miiller's  theory  that  language  has 
created  all  theology  is  to-day  somewhat  discredited. 
But  in  an  age  when  thought  was  as  loose  and  mysti- 
cism as  rampant  as  in  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  language  most  certainly  nourished 
theology. 

The  current  philosophy  of  Alexandria  was  full 
of  ideas  derived  from  Egyptian  and  Oriental 
sources  which  engendered  various  divine  genealo- 
gies and  baffling  theories  of  mediation.      The  Di- 

179 


HELLENISM 

vine  Wisdom,  the  Ideal  Man,  the  Immaculate 
conception  of  the  virtues,  the  mediation  of 
Hermes — the  Interpreter  between  man  and  the 
Absolute — these  were  the  floating  beliefs,  begotten 
of  the  union  of  decadent  mythology  and  decadent 
philosophy,  which  left  their  Impress  on  Phllo's 
doctrine  of  the  Divine  Powers.  Thus  In  one  place 
he  makes  the  Divine  Wisdom  the  mother  of  the 
Logos; '°  and  In  another  he  writes:  "  The  Creator 
who  has  made  this  universe  Is  the  Father  of  the 
creation;  and  Its  mother  Is  the  Wisdom  of  the 
Creator.  God  uniting  Himself  to  her  has  sown 
becoming  not  In  human  fashion;  she  having  re- 
ceived the  divine  seed,  has  In  perfect  travail  given 
birth  to  His  son,  sensible,  only-begotten,  and  be- 
loved— this  visible  world."  "  And,  again,  he 
speaks  of  God's  union  with  the  truly  virgin  Wis- 
dom." The  notion  of  an  Ideal  man  appears 
several  times  in  his  allegories  of  the  story  of  the 
creation.  God,  he  conceives,  first  created  a  Man 
who  Is  immaterial  Intelligence,  the  type  of  per- 
fection; and  from  this  Ideal  being  the  terrestrial 
man  came  Into  existence.  Developing  Hebraic 
Ideas  in  the  books  of  Ezeklel  and  Enoch,  which 
represent  Adam  as  the  perfect  type  of  humanity, 
he  separates  the  heavenly  archetype  from  its  ter- 

180 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

restrlal  copy,  and  sets  the  two  in  contrast.  This 
mystical  conception  received  great  prominence  in 
the  mediaeval  system  of  Jewish  mysticism  in  the 
form  of  the  Adam  Kadmon. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  to  dwell  on  the  de- 
tails of  Philo's  doctrine  of  intermediary  pov/ers, 
or  of  an  ideal  creation  midway  between  God  and 
the  material  world,  or  of  his  resolution  of  the 
angels  into  single  words  or  ideas.  We  can  but  note 
the  element  of  un-Jewish  ideas  and  foreign 
gnosticism  which  crept  into  his  philosophical 
allegories.  It  does  not  indeed  supplant  loyalty  to 
the  Law,  and  it  is  subordinate  to  his  deeply  spiritual 
and  truly  religious  nature,  which  makes  him  humble 
before  God  and  preserves  much  of  the  simple 
Jewish  relation  to  the  Deity;  but  with  others  such 
doctrines  were  to  become  subversive  of  the  cardinal 
principles  of  Judaism. 

Philo  in  a  sense  represents  the  high-water  mark 
of  Hellenistic  influence  upon  the  Jewish-Alexan- 
drian culture.  No  other  Jewish  writer  achieved  so 
thorough  a  combination  of  Jewish  and  Greek  wis- 
dom, or  developed  an  elaborate  system  of  alle- 
gorical commentary.  Yet  he  stands  out  as  the  con- 
servative   champion    of   Judaism    against    several 

schools,  which  went  much  further  in  the  adoption  of 

181 


HELLENISM 

Greek  Ideas  and  the  Greek  standpoint.  On  one 
side  were  the  thorough-going  materialists.  Over 
and  over  again  he  attacks  the  followers  of  a  philos- 
ophy which  deifies  the  human  reason  and  yet  pre- 
tends to  honor  God."  These  extreme  Hellenizers 
assumed  the  attitude  that  man  was  the  measure  of 
all  things,  and  that  he  must  stand  by  his  reason 
alone.  On  the  other  side  were  the  thorough-going 
spiritualists,  those  who  carried  to  its  extreme  con- 
sequence the  allegorical  interpretation  of  the  Law, 
and  used  it  as  a  justification  for  abandoning  practi- 
cal observance.  Claiming  to  be  spiritual,  they  were 
really  antinomian :  professing  a  rational  religion, 
they  tended  to  gnosticism.  Philo  calls  them  the 
children  of  Cain,  who  was  the  symbol  of  impious 
pride;  and  it  may  be  that  he  is  attacking  the  proto- 
type of  a  Cainite  sect  which  in  the  second  century 
of  the  Christian  era  held  gnostic  doctrines.  Any- 
how, by  the  opening  of  the  Christian  era  Hellenistic 
philosophy  had  planted  the  seeds  of  gnostic  heresy 
in  the  Alexandrian  community.  Sectarianism  in 
the  general  community  is  apt  to  produce  a  sectarian 
development  among  the  Jews.  The  Muslim  sects 
of  the  Arabs  and  Persians,  in  the  tenth  century,  had 
their  counterpart  in  Jewry,  and  the  uncounted  re- 
ligious groups  among  the  Graaeco-Romans,  in  the 

182 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

first  and  second  centuries,  were  matched  by  a 
medley  of  tenets  sprung  from  Hellenistic  Judaism. 
Philo  endeavoured  to  maintain  a  Judaism  which, 
while  liberal  and  free  in  thought,  was  catholic  in 
practice;  to  formulate  a  mystical  philosophy  of 
Judaism  which,  adopting  many  of  the  ideas  of  the 
Greek  sages,  should  still  be  true  to  the  fundamental 
points  of  Jewish  monotheism.  But  mysticism  al- 
ways runs  to  excess.  The  balance  was  unstable  in 
his  day,  and  it  could  not  be  fairly  maintained  a 
little  later.  His  was  a  sophistical  rather  than  a 
philosophical  age,  lacking  the  sense  for  the  beauty 
of  the  simple;  and  his  own  harmony  of  Hebraism 
and  Hellenism  was  not  established  on  a  sure  basis. 
The  notions  derived  from  Greek  philosophy  of  In- 
termediary beings  between  the  supreme  God  and 
man,  though  in  passing  through  the  mintage  of  his 
mind  stamped  with  a  wholly  spiritual  character, 
were,  nevertheless,  hardly  consistent  with  the  Jew- 
ish faith ;  and  the  syncretism  which  had  been  charac- 
teristic of  Alexandrian  culture  throughout  its 
development,  though  designed  by  him  to  serve  a 
sublime  purpose,  led  away  to  confused  theosophies, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  division  of  the  Godhead, 
on  the  other.  Both  the  Gnostics  and  the  early 
Christian  theologians  look  to  him  as  their  chief 

183 


HELLENISM 

guide,  and  the  poetical  metaphors  of  his  allegories 
become  with  them  hard  dogmas.  The  offspring  of 
Hellenistic  Judaism  was  heresy  and  the  rejection 
of  the  Torah. 

Philo,  as  v/e  have  seen,  was  aiming  at  the  very 
opposite:  he  hoped,  by  demonstrating  Judaism  to 
be  philosophical,  to  make  it  a  universal  religion. 
His  deeper  philosophy  and  his  profounder  alle- 
gorical interpretations  were  reserved  for  a  small 
circle,  and  in  his  day  were  not  divulged  to  the  mass. 
It  is  the  Christian  scholars  who  vulgarized  them. 
The  larger  part  of  his  work,  however,  is  designed  as 
an  exposition  of  the  Law  for  the  Hellenistic  world. 
The  five  books  of  Moses  were  not  a  collection  of 
the  myths,  the  tribal  chronicles,  and  the  particu- 
larist  laws  of  one  people :  they  were  the  divine 
revelation  for  all  mankind  of  moral  and  ethical 
truth.  The  history  of  the  creation  was  an  ideal 
cosmology;  the  lives  of  the  patriarchs  were  con- 
crete representations  of  the  highest  way  of  life;  the 
Mosaic  legislation  em.bodied  the  law  of  nature 
which  it  was  the  wise  man's  aim  to  attain.  More 
particularly,  Philo's  Life  of  Moses  with  the  ap- 
pended treatises  on  Bravery,  LIumanity,  and  Repen- 
tance, was  a  missionary  work,  presenting  Judaism 
for  all  cultured  people  as  a  rule  of  reason  and  phil- 

184 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

anthropy.  It  is  an  ethical  interpretation  of  the 
Pentateuch  for  the  Greek-speaking,  Greek-educated 
world.  The  philosophical  schools  had  each  their 
ideal  type,  Socrates,  Diogenes,  Epicurus,  Pythag- 
oras; but  Philo  places  above  them  all  Moses 
"  according  to  some  {i.  e.,  the  Gentiles)  the  law- 
giver of  the  Jews,  but  as  the  others  (i.  e.,  the  Jews) 
hold  the  interpreter  of  the  divine  laws  and  the 
greatest  and  most  perfect  man  in  every  way."  '*  In 
reply  to  the  anti-Semitic  agitators  who  charged  the 
Jewish  laws  with  being  tribal  and  inhumane,  he 
declares  that  "  they  are  reflections  and  copies  of 
the  divine  virtues,  of  which  the  archetypes  were 
stamped  by  God  on  the  soul  of  the  lawgiver."  And 
the  proof  of  their  divine  origin  and  excellence  is 
their  wide  sway  and  their  immutability.  "  The 
laws  of  the  Greek  legislators  were  subject  con- 
tinually to  change ;  the  laws  of  Moses  alone  re- 
mained steady,  unmoved,  unshaken,  stamped,  as  it 
were,  with  the  seal  of  nature  herself,  from  the  day 
when  they  were  written  to  the  present  day,  and 
will  so  rem.ain  for  all  time,  so  long  as  the  world 
endures.  Not  only  the  Jews,  but  all  other  peoples 
who  care  for  righteousness  adopt  them.  This 
privilege  they  have  which  distinguishes  them  from 
every  other  code.     Every  other  nation  has  its  own 

183 


HELLENISM 

laws,  and  will  not  accept  the  laws  of  another;  but 
the  Jewish  law  attracts  and  links  together  all 
peoples,  barbarians  and  Greeks,  those  who  live  on 
the  mainland,  and  those  who  live  on  the  Islands." 

The  Stoics  conceived  a  law  of  nature  providing 
a  rule  of  conduct  for  all  peoples,  but  they  were 
unable  to  specify  its  provisions.  They  contented 
themselves  with  the  assertion  of  general  phrases, 
to  the  effect  that  man  should  deny  pleasure  and  fol- 
low virtue.  Philo,  identifying  revealed  and  natural 
religion,  the  Greek  Logos  with  the  divine  Word, 
proclaims  the  Mosaic  legislation  as  the  universal 
law  of  the  one  God,  which  was  designed  for  the 
cosmopolis.  The  five  books  of  Moses  begin  with 
the  account  of  the  creation,  "  in  order  to  establish 
two  great  lessons :  first,  that  He  who  is  the  Father 
and  Creator  of  the  world  is  also  its  Legislator,  and 
secondly,  that  He  who  obeys  those  laws  will  follow 
the  path  of  nature  and  will  live  in  accordance  with 
the  order  of  the  universe,  so  that  there  will  be  true 
harmony  between  theory  and  practice."  Philo 
interprets  the  specific  enactments  of  the  Jewish  law 
universally;  he  points  a  moral  lesson  as  well  as  a 
historical  value  in  each  festival  and  each  national 
observance;  and  in  each  enactment  of  the  civil  law 
he  elucidates  an  ethical  principle  which  gives  it  a 

186 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

claim  to  the  obedience  of  humanity.     So  far  from 
being   narrow   and   prescribing   excluslveness,    the 
Jewish  law  In  Its  every  detail  and  Its  whole  outlook 
enjoins  the  love  of  one's  neighbor.     The  service 
of  God  is  carried  out  by  the  service  of  humanity; 
m  particular  slavery  is  discouraged,  and  Its  con- 
ditions are  constantly  mitigated  by  the  law.     This 
belief  in  the  ultimate  acceptance  of  Judaism  Is  thus 
expressed:    "This  is  the  supreme  aim  of  the  in- 
spired prophet  throughout  his  legislation,  to  ensure 
concord  and  good  understanding  and  the  harmony 
of  different  characters,  so  that  families  and  entire 
nations  and  countries,  and  Indeed  the  whole  race  of 
mankind,  might  advance  to  perfect  happiness.    Up 
to  the  present  time,  indeed,  this  Is  only  a  hope,  but 
that  it  will  come  to  pass  I  am  firmly  convinced,  and 
facts  show  Irrefutably,  for  God  Increases  the  har- 
vest of  virtue  year  by  year." 

That  the  Jewish  mission  at  that  time  was  an 
immense  force  In  the  diaspora  is  proved  by  the 
testimony  of  Jew  and  Gentile.  ''  There  is  not  any 
city  of  the  Greeks,"  says  Josephus ''—doubtless 
w^Ith  some  rhetorical  exaggeration,  but,  yet  with 
a  kernel  of  truth—,  ''  nor  any  of  the  barbarians, 
nor  any  nation  whatsoever  to  which  our  habit 
of  resting  on  the  seventh  day  has  not  been  intro- 

187 


HELLENISM 

duced,  and  by  whom  our  fasts  and  our  prohibitions 
as  to  food  are  not  observed.  As  God  Himself  per- 
vadeth  the  universe,  so  hath  our  law  passed 
through  the  world."  And  Seneca,  the  Roman 
philosopher,  spoke  of  subject  Judea  having  taken 
victorious  Rome  captive. 

The  outward  expansion  of  Hellenistic  Judaism 
was  greater  than  its  inward  cohesion,  and  be- 
came In  time  a  danger.  In  order  to  appeal  to  the 
Gentile  peoples,  Jewish  law  and  Jewish  belief  were 
re-interpreted  In  terms  of  Greek  thought.  The 
Idea  of  God  was  obscured  with  notions,  derived 
from  Hellenistic  theology,  of  His  division  into 
several  powers  which  were  Interposed  between  Him 
and  the  world.  The  direct  relation  between  God 
and  man,  which  was  the  goal  of  Jewish  piety,  was 
transformed  Into  mystical  progressions  through 
attributes  to  the  Godhead;  speculation  about  the 
Immanence  of  God  led  on  to  the  acceptance  of  the 
Hellenistic  notion  of  incarnation;  and  the  Mes- 
sianic hope  of  a  world-wide  kingdom  of  God  was 
exchanged  for  the  individual  ideal  of  personal  re- 
demption in  union  with  the  Son  of  God.  The  New 
Testament  Illustrates  the  part  which  Hellenistic 
Jews  throughout  the  diaspora  played  in  the  earliest 
disruptive  development  of  the  Christian  teaching. 

188 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

Even  at  Jerusalem  one  of  the  "  Grecian  Jews," 
Stephen,  proclaimed  that  the  Law  and  all  outward 
ceremonies  were  ordained  to  last  but  for  a  time," 
and  thereby  roused  the  resentment  of  the  other  dis- 
ciples. Jews  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene  were  the  first 
disciples  at  Antloch  to  preach  to  the  Greeks,  and  to 
constitute  the  followers  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  a 
separate  sect."  At  Ephesus  the  Alexandrian  Apol- 
los  turned  from  preaching  Judaism  to  preaching 
the  new  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles.  Lastly,  the  mis- 
sion of  Paul  marks  the  radical  conversion  of  the 
ethical  Hebraic  teaching  of  Jesus  Into  a  new  Hel- 
lenistic religion,  in  which  the  theology  of  the  ad- 
vanced Alexandrian  reformers  takes  the  place  of 
the  life  according  to  the  Jewish  law  as  the  basis 
of  union.  "  The  letter  which  Is  the  law  kills  and 
leads  to  death.  The  spirit  which  is  the  Lord  gives 
life  and  leads  Godwards." 

The  elements  of  a  new  religious  system  were  con- 
tained in  the  Hellenistic  communities.  The  use  of 
Hebrew  disappeared,  and  with  It  much  of  the  He- 
braic spirit.  The  observance  of  the  Torah,  which 
was  the  spontaneous  expression  of  the  national- 
religious  life  In  Palestine,  came  to  be  regarded, 
under  the  influence  of  Greek  ethics,  as  an  obstacle 
to  the  spiritual  life.  The  Judaism  of  the  diaspora 
13  189 


HELLENISM 

was  colder  and  less  happy  than  that  of  Judea." 
Instead  of  welcoming  the  Torah  with  joy,  the 
Hellenistic  Jew  invented  theories,  and  sought  to 
justify  his  religion.  Something  of  the  same  con- 
trast exists  to-day  between  the  Judaism  of  the 
ghetto  and  the  Judaism  of  the  emancipated  Jew- 
ries of  the  West.  The  interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures was  raised  to  a  kind  of  philosophy  by  alle- 
gorizing away  the  historical  meaning  and  the  literal 
precept,  and  by  substituting  for  them  eclectic  doc- 
trines of  Greek  schools  and  Oriental  speculations. 
Lastly,  the  belief  in  the  arising  of  a  national  Mes- 
siah of  the  house  of  David  was  displaced  by  the 
idea  of  the  incarnation  of  a  divine  Power  who 
should  judge  men  at  the  end  of  days.  Allegorical 
development  and  its  destructive  effects  did  not  stop 
with  Philo.  Within  a  century  of  his  death,  the 
unity  of  Alexandrian  Judaism  was  irretrievably 
marred,  and  sectarianism  was  dissolving  the  Jew- 
ish communities  of  the  West. 

Of  the  three  great  bonds  of  the  Jewish  people, 
which  hitherto  had  held  them  together  in  the  dias- 
pora, two  had  been  broken,  and  the  other  was 
seriously  weakened.  The  triple  cord  consisted  of 
the  language,  and  the  land,  and  the  law.  The  sub- 
stitution of  Greek  as  the  language  of  prayer  and 

190 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

biblical  study  involved  a  growing  estrangement  of 
thought  between  Hellenistic  and  Palestinian  Juda- 
ism. And  though  outside  Egypt  there  Is  little  direct 
evidence  that  Greek  had  replaced  Hebrew  in  the 
synagogue  (Mommsen's  suggestion  that  Greek 
was  a  compulsory  language  has  been  refuted),  the 
rapid  growth  of  Christian  heresy  at  Antioch  and 
other  Jewish  centres  shows  that  the  synagogue 
there  had  lost  its  national  character  and  Its  national 
strength.  The  love  of  Palestine  and  the  regard  for 
the  sanctuary  at  Jerusalem  as  the  centre  of  the 
religious  nationality  remained  an  influence  of  su- 
preme Importance  so  long  as  the  nation  preserved 
its  autonomy.  Phllo  bears  witness  to  the  deep 
affection  of  the  Alexandrian  community  for  the 
temple  service/'  and  those  pilgrimages  to  Jerusa- 
lem at  the  great  festivals,  when  deputations  came 
up  to  worship  together  from  Parthia,  Media,  and 
Babylonia,  Mesopotamia,  Cappadocia  and  Asia, 
Phrygia  and  Pamphylia,  Egypt  and  Cyrene, 
Greece  and  Rome,''  were  a  powerful  means  of 
strengthening  the  unity  of  the  house  of  Israel. 
When  Jerusalem  and  the  temple  were  razed  by 
Titus,  with  the  possible  purpose  of  destroying  the 
bond  of  cohesion,  Hellenistic  Judaism  lost  one  of  its 
great  bulwarks  against  disintegration.     In  Pales- 

191 


HELLENISM 

tine  the  strengthening  of  the  Law  more  than  coun- 
terbalanced the  loss  of  national  independence  and 
of  a  national  centre.  But  in  the  diaspora  the  hold 
of  the  Law  was  already  threatened,  and  the  weak- 
ening of  the  centripetal  forces  assisted  the  en- 
croachment of  gnostic  and  antinomian  ideas  from 
the  environment.  Christianity  in  Its  Palestinian 
origin  had  but  few  Hellenistic  elements;  but  when 
It  spread  to  the  diaspora,  it  was  transformed  by  the 
notions  of  its  Greek-speaking  and  Greek-thinking 
adherents.  The  doctrine  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels  Is 
Llebraic;  the  doctrine  about  Jesus  in  the  Epistles  is 
Hellenistic.  Judaism  contributed  to  the  new  creed 
the  social  and  moral  ideal,  Hellenism  the  Ideal  of 
individual  redemption.''  The  Hellenistic  writers 
of  the  New  Testament,  such  as  the  authors  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  or  the  Gospel  according  to 
St.  John — both,  it  Is  surmised,  Alexandrians — 
prove  how  far,  in  the  second  century,  foreign  ideas 
had  undermined  the  pure  Jewish  standpoint.  Their 
use  of  allegorical  Interpretation  Is  illuminating  In 
this  connection.  The  manna  and  the  brazen  ser- 
pent represent  for  the  Palestinian  symbolists  the 
Law  and  faith;  by  Philo  they  are  associated  with 
the  Logos;  by  the  writer  of  the  fourth  Gospel  they 
are  Identified  with  Jesus  Incarnate.*'     Again,  the 

192 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  giving  a  neAv 
turn  to  Philo's  personification  of  the  Logos  as  high 
priest  and  as  Melchlzedek,  speaks  of  Jesus  as  "  a 
high  priest  who  passed  Into  heaven,  who  was  In  all 
points  tempted  as  we  are,  yet  was  without  sin  "; 
and  later  he  writes:  ''  After  the  similitude  of  Mel- 
chlzedek there  ariseth  another  priest  ....  and 
this  man,  because  he  contlnueth  ever,  has  an  un- 
changeable priesthood.  Wherefore  he  is  able  to 
save  them  to  the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by 
him,  seeing  he  ever  llveth  to  make  Intercession  for 
them."  "^  The  ideas  of  the  incarnation  of  God  in 
human  form  and  of  human  redemption  by  a  divine 
Individual,  both  in  antipathy  to  the  Jewish  con- 
ception of  God,  and  derived  from  the  Hellenistic 
mysteries,  are  emphatically  marked.  When  the 
fundamental  bonds  of  unity  were  loosened,  the 
beliefs  which  Jewish  separateness  was  designed  to 
preserve  were  likewise  impaired.  The  doctrines  of 
the  Logos  and  the  Powers  were  in  the  first  and 
second  centuries  of  the  common  era  so  developed, 
that  the  unity  of  the  Jewish  God  and  His  divine 
communion  with  man  was  lost  in  the  speculations 
about  Intermediaries  and  trinities  and  In  "  a  phan- 
tasmagoria of  angels  and  demons."  The  move- 
ment which  began  with  the  Septuagint  translation 

193 


HELLENISM 

of  the  Bible  ended  with  the  Epistles  of  the  New 
Testament  and  the  Creeds  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Theological  Christianity,  with  its  rejection  of  the 
Law  and  the  national  hope,  its  background  in  the 
ideas  of  the  Greek  mysteries,  and  its  dogmas  of  the 
incarnation  and  redemption  by  the  Savior,  was 
the  last  outcome  of  Alexandrian  allegory.  It  was 
the  final  stage  in  the  syncretism  of  Judaism  with 
foreign  cultures,  which,  up  to  a  point,  had  nour- 
ished and  fructified  Jewish  thought,  but  when  it 
passed  that  point,  produced  a  new  religious  species. 
Alexander's  hope  for  the  marriage  of  Europe  and 
Asia  was  consummated  in  the  field  of  religion,  and 
the  New  Testament  is  the  offspring  of  the  union." 
The  Jewish  communities  of  Alexandria  and 
other  Hellenistic  centres  did  not  disappear  with  the 
spread  of  Christianity.  The  Alexandrian  colony 
persisted  till  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century, 
when  it  was  violently  expelled  by  the  Christian 
bishop.  But  the  congregations  of  the  diaspora 
were  no  longer  clearly  distinguished  from  the 
catholic  body  of  Judaism.  From  the  end  of  the 
first  century  no  extant  literature  marks  a  division 
between  the  Greek-speaking  and  the  other  Jews. 
But  from  the  same  period  date  numerous  writings 

194 


HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

of  Christians  and  Gnostics,  whose  doctrines  were, 
In  large  measure,  a  development  of  Hellenistic 
Judaism.  Those  who  remained  Jews  accepted  the 
rabbinic  authority.  They  adopted  the  Palestinian 
Canon  of  the  Bible,  and  rejected  the  additions  to 
the  biblical  books  and  the  apocryphal  works  which 
were  contained  In  the  Septuagint  translation.  The 
Christian  Orlgen  (flourished  about  220  C.  E.) 
refers  to  the  books  of  Tobit  and  Judith  and  the 
additions  to  Daniel  and  Esther  as  being  no  longer 
In  the  Jewish  Canon."'  A  large  part  of  Hellenistic 
Jewry  must  have  been  absorbed  In  the  new  religious 
bodies,  and  Hellenistic  Judaism  perished  as  a  dis- 
tinct branch  of  the  religion.  The  Palestinian 
teachers  sought  to  defend  Judaism  against  Hellen- 
ism, the  Alexandrian  teachers  to  defend  It  with 
Hellenism.  The  alliance,  however,  was  dangerous, 
and  In  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  when 
the  crisis  came,  Hellenistic  Judaism  was  saturated 
with  so  many  strange  doctrines  that  it  lost  Its  centre 
of  gravity  and  was  unable  to  stand  the  shock,  and 
Its  traditions  and  ideals  were  transformed  through 
the  intermingling  of  Oriental  ideas  into  various 
heresies.  The  sublime  faith  of  Hebraism  and 
the  clear  reason  of  Hellenism  were  lost  in  the 

195 


HELLENISM 

blended  product.  Neither  Jewish  nor  Hellenistic 
religion  prevailed  in  the  fusion  of  cultures,  but  they 
were  absorbed  in  a  cosmopolitan  creed  which  com- 
bined elements  from  many  sources  in  an  impure 
syncretism. 


196 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH 
LITERATURE 

The  history  of  the  Hellenistic  movement  in  Juda- 
ism is  mainly  to  be  sought  in  literature ;  and  we  have 
already  dealt  with  several  monuments  which  mark 
its  progressive  stages:  the  Septuagint  translation, 
the  books  of  the  Maccabees,  the  Wisdom  of  Ben 
Sira,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  the  culminating 
achievement  in  the  works  of  Phllo-Judaeus. 
Much  of  the  product  of  the  blending  of  the  two 
cultures  has  disappeared,  and  is  known  to  us  either 
by  name  only,  or  in  fragments;  but  in  addition  to 
the  books  mentioned  several  others  have  survived 
which  illustrate  the  progress  of  Hellenization  both 
in  Palestine  and  the  diaspora,  and  mark  different 
aspects  of  its  influence  and  its  effect.  The  Rabbis, 
indeed,  when  the  dangerous  consequences  of  re- 
ligious syncretism  were  apparent,  contrived  to  ex- 
clude the  whole  of  the  literature  from  the  works 
used  for  public  reading  or  public  teaching  in  the 
schools,  so  that  it  played  scarcely  any  direct  part 
in  later  Jewish  thought.     It  was  preserved,  how- 

197 


HELLENISM 

ever,  by  the  early  Christians,  and  It  lived  on  under 
the  protection  of  the  Church  fathers  and  Christian 
monks  who  regarded  It  with  great  veneration,  for 
the  same  reason  that  the  Rabbis  discountenanced 
it — that  It  contained  the  germs  of  Christian 
teaching. 

That  some  Jews,  as  early  as  the  latter  part  of  the 
fourth  century  B.  C.  E.,  were  well  acquainted  with 
Greek,  is  proved  by  the  comments  upon  Judaism 
of  certain  pagan  authors,  which  must  have  been 
derived,  if  not  from  translations  of  portions  of  the 
Scriptures,  at  any  rate  from  verbal  information. 
But  it  Is  the  Septuagint  translation  which  marks 
the  entrance  of  Judaism  into  the  stream  of  the 
world's  culture.  Round  it  is  grouped  the  whole  of 
the  Jewish  literary  output  in  Greek  during  the 
third  and  second  centuries:  the  books  of  the 
Apocrypha  and  the  Apocalypses,  the  poetical  and 
literary  paraphrases  of  the  Bible,  the  apologetic 
and  propagandist  writings.  The  two  aims  that  run 
through  the  writings  of  the  period  are :  first,  to 
strengthen  the  hold  of  Judaism  upon  the  Jewish 
people  by  developing  and  expanding  its  religious 
ideas,  and  showing  their  harmony  with  the  intel- 
lectual clviUzation  of  the  environment;  secondly, 
to  make  Judaism  known  to  the  Gentiles  and  hon- 

198 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

ored  in  their  eyes,  and  to  rebut  calumnies  about  its 
sacred  books  and  beliefs.    When  Greek  was  spoken 
by  all  cultured  people,  each  nation  was  anxious  to 
write  its  history  in  that  language,  so  that  it  should 
be  available  for  all.     Literature  like  society  was 
cosmopolitan.       The     Septuagint    translation    of 
Scripture,  however,  if  we  have  regard  only  to  its 
linguistic  character,  was  fitted  for  the  study  rather 
of  the  Jewish  community  than   of  their   Gentile 
neighbors.     As  Schurer  says,  it  was  written  in  a 
new  language,   swarming  with   such  strange  He- 
braisms that  the  Greeks  could  hardly  understand  it. 
Short  and  concise  histories  of  Jewish  antiquities 
were  composed  in  more  intelligible  Greek  for  the 
general    public.      The    earliest    Jewish    historian 
of   the    kind,    of    whom    we    have    fragments,    is 
Demetrius,  who  lived  about  the  end  of  the  third 
century.     The  remains  of  his  work,  with  those  of 
most  of  the  early  Hellenistic  Jewish  writers,  are 
preserved   in   the   collection   of   Alexander    Poly- 
histor,  a  voluminous  author  of  the  first  century, 
which   again   has   come   down   to  us   through   ex- 
cerpts in  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Eusebius.' 
Demetrius,    it    seems,    was    a    jejune    chronicler, 
who   set   out   in   chronological   order   the   leading 
events  of  the  history  of  Israel  and  Judah  from 

199 


HELLENISM 

the  time  of  Abraham.  Eupolemus,  who  wrote 
a  book  on  the  kings  of  Judah,  has  more  pretence 
to  literary  skill.  He  freely  handles  the  scriptural 
history,  and  he  makes  Moses  the  inventor  of  the 
art  of  alphabetical  writing  which  was  handed  on 
by  the  Jews  to  the  Phoenicians,  and  by  them  to 
the  Hellenes.  Freudenthal  ingeniously  Identifies 
him  with  the  Eupolemus  whom  Judas  Maccabeus 
sent  on  one  of  his  embassies  to  Rome;  and  his  awk- 
ward Greek  style  makes  it  probable  that  he  was  a 
Palestinian  Jew,  while  his  use  of  the  Hebrew,  in- 
stead of  the  Septuagint  text  of  the  Bible,  and  his 
freedom  from  any  allegorical  embellishment  of  the 
Scripture  narrative  suggest  that  he  was  a  loyal 
Judean  unaffected  by  Greek  influence.  These 
early  historians  are  Greek  only  In  language,  not  in 
thought;  and  even  their  language  Is  a  foreign  me- 
dium in  which  they  are  by  no  means  at  home. 

On  the  other  hand,  traces  of  a  crude  religious 
syncretism  are  found  In  the  slender  fragments  of 
two  Samaritan  historians  which  are  preserved  in 
the  same  source.  Malchos  Cleodemos  associates 
Abraham's  offspring  by  Keturah  with  Heracles,  the 
Greek  and  Phoenician  hero-god;  while  pseudo- 
Eupolemus '  Identifies  Abraham  with  Nimrod  and 
Belos,  and  speaks  of  Argerlzim  (i.  e.,  Mount  Geri- 

200 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

zim)  as  the  mount  of  the  highest  deity.  And  Theod- 
otus,  a  poet  who  wrote  an  epic  on  Shechem,  the 
holy  city  of  the  Samaritans,  ascribes  the  city's  foun- 
dation to  one  Sicimos,   a  son  of  the   Greek  god 
Hermes.      Among    the    half-Jewish    Samaritans, 
then,  in  the  second  century  a  distinct  movement 
existed  toward  the  adoption  of  the  cosmopolitan 
Hellenistic  religion  which  was  in  vogue  throughout 
the  East.     The  presence  of  a  Greek  colony  both 
in   Samaria   and   Shechem   doubtless   fostered   the 
movement.     A  different  kind  of  syncretism  is  con- 
tained  in   the   writings   of   pseudo-Artapanus,    of 
which  our  remnants  are  mure  considerable.     He 
wrote  a  history  of  the  Jev/s,  and  is  especially  con- 
cerned with  the  story  of  Israel  in  Egypt.     He  cer- 
tainly was  an  Egyptian  Jew,  and  his  knowledge  of 
Greek  literature  is  greater  than  that  of  the  writers 
hitherto  mentioned,  extending  to  the  composition  of 
lines  in  different  Greek  metres.    He  is  master,  too, 
of  the  more  obvious  devices  of  rhetoric,  and  he  has 
something  of  the  skill  of  the  writer  of  fiction.    The 
general  principle  of  his  writing  may  be  defined  as 
confounding  the    chronology   and   perverting   the 
Scriptures,  in  order  to  associate  the  Hebrew  heroes 
with  the  heroes  of  the  nations.     According  to  his 
improved  Exodus,   the   leader  of  Israel  was  the 

201 


HELLENISM 

same  person  as  Musaeus,  the  legendary  teacher  of 
Orpheus;  he  was  the  inventor  of  philosophy  and  of 
hieroglyphics,  and  a  great  warrior  and  builder  to 
boot;  he  built  the  city  of  Hermopolis,  and  he  even 
established  the  Egyptian  religion.  The  Egyptians 
called  him  Hermes  because  of  his  skill  in  herme- 
neutics.  The  patriarchs  likewise  founded  Egyptian 
cults,  and  Abraham  Instructed  the  Pharaoh  of  his 
time  in  astrology.  The  author  was  writing  not  for 
the  Jewish  but  for  the  pagan  community,  and  he 
was  writing  not  history  but  apology,  which  is  his- 
tory with  a  purpose  and  without  a  conscience. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  a  feud 
raged  between  the  Hellenized  Egyptians  and  the 
Jews,  which  was  largely  fought  with  the  weapons 
of  literary  falsehood.  The  Jews  thought  fit  to 
defend  themselves  against  the  calumnies  of  their 
detractors,  who  spread  scurrilous  accounts  of  their 
origin  and  their  beliefs,  by  spreading  equally  false 
accounts  of  the  glorious  part  their  ancestors  had 
played  in  Egyptian  civilization.  The  syncretism 
of  a  pseudo-Artapanus  then  Is  not  a  sincere  ex- 
pression of  opinion,  but  a  conscious  pose,  designed 
to  Impress  the  ruder  section  of  the  population 
among  whom  the  Jews  lived.  It  betrays  the  not 
very  happy  influence  of  Hellenistic  models  upon  the 

202 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

Jewish  litterateurs  of  Alexandria.  They  imbibed 
a  disregard  of  truth,  together  with  the  capacity 
to  write  ornate  periods,  and  acquaintance  with 
poetical  mythology  led  them  to  turn  their  own 
sacred  records  Into  fiction. 

Freudenthal,  on  the  strength  of  certain  corre- 
spondences between  the  fragments  of  Artapanus 
and  the  Letter  of  Arlsteas,  ascribes  the  famous  let- 
ter to  the  same  author.  Further  he  attributes  to 
him  a  large  part  of  the  Jewish  pseudeplgraphic 
literature  which  was  composed  in  Greek  verse.  His 
thesis  savors  of  the  method  of  the  Bacon-Shakes- 
peare controversialists;  but  whether  he  is  right  or 
only  ingenious,  whether  one  bold  man  was  respon- 
sible for  the  fictitious  version  of  Exodus,  for  the 
imaginative  record  of  the  origin  of  the  Septuagint 
translation,  for  the  monotheistic  tags  that  are  ap- 
pended to  Sophocles  and  Orpheus,  and  for  the  ex- 
hortations to  Judaism  which  the  Sibyl  utters  In  hex- 
ameters full  of  false  quantities  and  sound  doctrines, 
or  whether  a  school  of  literary  forgers  divided  the 
work  between  them,  undoubtedly  a  common  trend 
runs  through  all  the  apologetic  literature,  and  a 
single  spirit  prompted  its  composition.  The  pur- 
pose was  to  glorify  Judaism  and  the  Jewish  people 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Hellenistic  population  by  the 

203 


HELLENISM 

adoption  of  Hellenistic  standards  and  the  use  of 
Hellenistic  forms.  To  effect  this  object,  accuracy 
and  truth  might  be  sacrificed,  and  the  intrinsic 
excellence  of  the  teaching  might  be  tricked  out 
with  fictitious  testimonials  of  Greek  thinkers.  The 
apologetic  literature  has  a  curious  blend  of  the  mis- 
sionary and  advertising  spirit.  But  it  is  absurd 
to  attribute  its  fiction  to  the  inherent  vice  of  the 
Jew.  Scallger,  the  seventeenth  centry  scholar, 
spoke  of  falseness  as  "  Judseorum  natura  Insita," 
but  in  truth  the  Jewish  writers  were  only  copying 
what  others  had  done  for  Chaldean,  Egyptian,  and 
Hellenistic  antiquities.' 

The  Letter  of  Arlsteas,  which  has  survived  in 
its  integrity,  professes  to  be  a  contemporary  ac- 
count of  the  translation  of  the  Pentateuch  Into 
Greek  In  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Phlladelphus  (285- 
277).  It  purports  to  be  sent  to  Phllocrates  by  his 
brother  Arlsteas,  who  was  an  official  at  the  court, 
and  went  on  an  embassy  to  Jerusalem  to  Induce  the 
high  priest  to  send  sages  who  should  make  the  ver- 
sion of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  for  the  royal  library. 
Possibly  the  writer  assumes  the  name  of  Arlsteas  in 
order  to  Identify  himself  with  a  Jewish  historian 
of  that  name,  of  whom  a  short  fragment  dealing 
with  the  story  of  Job  is  preserved.     But  scholars  * 

204 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

agree  that  letter  cannot  be  contemporary  with  the 
events  described.  The  writer  naively  betrays  his 
later  date  In  several  particulars,  as  when  he  says 
that  the  arrangement  for  the  reception  of  foreign 
guests  at  the  Alexandrian  court  may  still  be  seen 
in  operation,  and  that  "  all  histories  used  to  be 
translated  by  these  kings,"  i.  e.,  the  Ptolemies. 
Scholars  agree  also  that  he  must  have  been  an 
Alexandrian  Jew.  The  balance  of  evidence  as  to 
his  approximate  date  Is  In  favor  of  the  end  of  the 
second  century  B.  C.  E.  The  story  of  the  embassy 
to  Jerusalem,  of  the  choosing  of  sages  for  the 
translation,  "  who  had  not  only  acquired  proficiency 
In  Jewish  learning  but  had  also  given  profound 
study  to  that  of  the  Greeks,"  of  their  reception  at 
Alexandria,  and  of  the  miraculous  outcome  of  their 
labors,  has  already  been  touched  upon.  The  narra- 
tive contains  also  several  romantic  letters  which 
passed  between  Ptolemy  and  Eleazar,  the  high 
priest,  a  detailed  description  of  the  royal  presents  to 
the  temple,  and  a  gorgeous  but  shadowy  description 
of  Jerusalem,  bespeaking  the  literary  craftsman 
rather  than  the  eye-witness.  But  what  Is  more 
notable  for  the  study  of  Hellenistic  thought  Is  the 
apologetic  account  of  the  Law  which  Is  put  Into  the 
mouth  of  Eleazar.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  first  example 
14  205 


HELLENISM 


of  the  propagation  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  In  the 
light  of  Greek  ethical  Ideas.  "  I  believe,"  says  the 
writer  by  way  of  Introduction  to  this  section  of  his 
work,  "  that  most  men  have  some  curiosity  about 
the  regulations  of  the  Law  concerning  meats  and 
drinks  and  the  animals  which  are  considered 
unclean."  "  Eleazar,  having  first  expounded  the 
monotheistic  principle  of  Judaism  and  contrasted 
It  with  the  lower  Ideas  of  God  held  by  other 
peoples,  explains  that  these  laws  are  designed  to 
secure  the  purposive  separateness  of  the  Jews. 
''  To  the  Intent  then  that  we  should  not  become  per- 
verted through  joining  In  the  pollution  of  any 
people  ....  he  fenced  us  round  on  all  sides 
with  laws  of  purification  of  meat  and  drink  and 
hearing  and  seeing.  For,  speaking  generally,  all 
these.  If  viewed  In  the  light  of  their  Inward  mean- 
ing, are  directed  by  a  single  power;  and  In  every 
detail  there  Is  a  profound  reason  for  the  things 
which  we  abstain  from  using,  and  those  of  which  we 
make  use."  ' 

The  method  of  Aristeas  Is  like  that  of  the  Dor- 
she  Hamurot  of  Palestine;  but  he  extends  to  the 
Halakah  the  symbolical  Interpretation  which  they, 
for  the  most  part,  confined  to  narrative  passages. 
He  points  out  a  symbolical  value  In  the  various 

206 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

dietary  laws.  "  The  winged  creatures  of  which 
we  partake,  such  as  doves,  geese,  and  the  like,  are 
tame  and  distinguished  by  cleanly  habits,  using 
wheat  and  pulse  for  their  sustenance.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  that  are  forbidden  are  wild  and  car- 
nivorous, and  use  their  powers  to  oppress  the 
remainder  of  their  kind.  Hence  the  lawgiver  sig- 
nified that  those  for  whom  the  laws  are  ordained 
must  be  outwardly  righteous  and  oppress  none 
through  confidence  in  their  strength,  but  must  direct 
their  lives  by  righteous  motives."  Symbolism  is 
closely  akin  to  allegory,  and  the  apologist  offers 
other  Interpretations  of  the  Mosaic  law  which  are 
more  distinctly  allegorical.  The  parting  of  the 
hoof  and  the  dividing  of  the  claws  "  symbolize  dis- 
crimination in  directing  every  action  to  a  good 
end;  for  the  strength  of  the  whole  body,  in  order 
to  display  Itself  In  action.  Is  dependent  on  the  arms 
and  legs.  Again,  the  chewing  of  the  cud  to  thought- 
ful minds  clearly  indicates  memory;  for  It  Is  noth- 
ing else  but  a  calling  to  mind  of  one's  life  and  ex- 
istence." ' 

In  the  last  part  of  the  letter  the  writer  describes 
a  symposium  between  the  king  and  the  translators, 
extending  over  seven  days,  which  gives  him  an  op- 
portunity of  bringing  out  the  supreme  wisdom  of 

207 


HELLENISM 

the  Jewish  sages.  This  section  of  the  work  recalls 
the  stones  in  the  Talmud  about  Alexander's  dis- 
course with  the  wise  men  of  Judea ;  but  its  distinc- 
tive feature  is  the  combination  of  the  Hebraic  idea 
of  righteousness  with  Hellenic  ethics.  AM  wisdom 
is  derived  from  God,  and  the  prince  of  Aristeas  is 
counselled  to  secure  the  prosperity  of  his  realm  by 
godliness.  Again,  when  the  king  asks  what  is  the 
greatest  glory,  he  receives  the  reply:  ''  To  honour 
God,  and  that  not  with  gifts  and  sacrifices,  but  with 
purity  in  the  soul,  and  in  the  devout  conviction  that 
all  things  are  fashioned  and  directed  by  God  m  ac- 
cordance with  His  will."  '  When  he  asks:  "  Can 
wisdom  be  taught?  "  (a  famous  Greek  question), 
he  replied:  "  The  soul  is  through  God's  power  so 
adapted  as  to  accept  all  that  is  good,  and  reject  what 
is  contrary  thereto."  Throughout,  insistence  is  laid 
on  faith;  and  trust  in  God  is  emphasized  as  the 
foundation  of  wisdom  and  virtue.  There  is  clearly 
a  tacit  controversy  with  the  position  of  the  Greek 
schools,  and  more  especially  of  the  Stoics  who, 
making  man  the  measure  of  all  things,  placed  su- 
preme reliance  on  reason.  The  Jewish  sages  "  far 
excelled  the  philosophers,  in  that  they  took  God 
for  their  starting-point." 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

The  Letter  of  Aristeas  is  a  specimen  of  the 
didactic  novel;  and  another  monument  of  Hellenis- 
tic Judaism,  the  so-called  Fourth  Book  of  the  Mac- 
cabees, is  a  specimen  of  the  artistic  homily.  The 
title  given  to  the  latter  by  its  author  was  "  On  the 
Supremacy  of  Pure  Reason  ";  it  is  on  the  face  of 
it  not  a  historical  narrative,  but  a  moral  exhorta- 
tion or  series  of  sermons  supported  by  historical 
argument  and  embellished  by  rhetorical  ornament, 
designed  to  point  out  the  excellence  of  the  life  under 
the  Torah,  and  drawing  its  examples  from  the 
Seleucid  persecution.  In  default  of  a  known  au- 
thor, it  was  long  ascribed  without  good  reason  to 
Josephus.  Freudenthar  suggests  with  more 
plausibility  that  it  is  based  on  the  history  written 
by  Jason  of  Cyrene,  of  which  our  Second  Book  of 
the  Maccabees  is  an  epitome.  But  whoever  its 
author  and  whatever  its  date,  it  constitutes  in  a 
way  one  of  the  most  perfect  blendings  of  Hellen- 
ism and  Hebraism  which  have  come  down  from  the 
period.  The  purpose  of  the  homily,  like  that  of 
the  Letter  of  Aristeas,  is  to  glorify  the  Jewish  Law 
and  the  Jewish  way  of  life;  but  it  is  carried  out 
with  greater  loyalty  to  the  spirit  of  Judaism. 
Doubtless  the  difference  in  standpoint  is  partly 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  preacher  is  addressing  Jews 

209 


HELLENISM 

or  proselytes  in  a  synagogue,  while  the  Letter  was 
addressed  to  the  Gentiles  outside  the  synagogue. 
Though  he  wrote  with  full  mastery  of  the  arts  of 
Greek  rhetoric,  he  is  in  his  ideas  a  loyal  Pharisaic 
Jew,  full  of  national  pride  and  of  love  for  his  re- 
ligion. Nor  does  he  allow  his  knowledge  of  Greek 
philosophy  to  weaken  in  any  way  his  faithfulness 
to  legal  observance :  rather  it  confirms  and  deepens 
it.  Judaism  remains  for  him  the  best  system  of  life. 
"  For  our  philosophy  "  (/'.  e.,  the  Law),  he  says, 
"  teaches  us  temperance,  so  that  we  master  our 
pleasures  and  desires,  and  it  exercised  us  in  forti- 
tude so  that  we  willingly  undergo  every  toil.  And 
it  instructs  us  in  justice,  so  that  in  all  our  behaviour 
we  give  them  what  is  due;  and  it  teaches  us  to  be 
pious,  so  that  we  worship  the  only  living  God  in  a 
manner  becoming  His  greatness." 

He  makes  an  ethical  defence  of  the  dietary  laws 
which,  then  as  now,  were  the  target  for  a  type  of 
shallow  rationalism.  "  When  we  long,"  he  says, 
"  for  fishes  and  fowls  and  four-footed  animals,  and 
every  kind  of  food  which  is  forbidden  to  us  by  the 
Law,  it  is  through  the  mastery  of  pious  reason  that 
we  abstain  from  them.  For  the  affections  and  ap- 
petites are  restrained  and  turned  into  another 
direction  by  the  sobriety  of  the  mind,  and  all  the 

210 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

movements  of  the  body  are  kept  in  check  by  pious 
reason."  In  this  fashion  he  sets  up  the  Mosaic 
code  as  the  embodiment  of  a  loftier  reason  than  the 
pleasure-seeking,  self-indulgent  materialism  which 
was  based  upon  a  superficial  acquaintance  with 
Greek  philosophy.  Yet  it  is  a  sign  of  Greek  in- 
fluence that  he  feels  compelled  to  find  an  ethical 
justification  for  the  prescriptions  of  the  Law.  He 
invokes  the  Greek  idea  of  reason  as  the  foundation 
of  virtue;  but  he  avoids  the  allurements  of  sym- 
bolism and  allegory.  The  Mosaic  code  as  a  whole 
is  the  rule  of  reason;  and  wisdom,  which  is  the 
knowledge  of  affairs  both  human  and  divine  and 
of  their  causes,  is  attained  by  the  discipline  and 
instruction  of  the  law.  Aristotle  had  taught  in  his 
Ethics  how  moral  virtue  based  on  good  habit  must 
precede  intellectual  excellence,  which  was  the  goal 
of  human  endeavor.  The  author  of  our  homily, 
applying  this  teaching,  acclaims  Judaism  as  a  posi- 
tive system  of  the  best  life.  The  commandments 
not  to  reap  the  corners  of  the  field,  and  not  to 
cut  down  the  trees  of  the  enemy  in  war,  bear  witness 
to  its  humanitarian  character.  And  for  the  prac- 
tical influence  of  the  Law  he  points  to  the  story  of 
Hannah  and  her  sons,  which  is  embellished  with  all 
the  artifice  of  the  accomplished  rhetorician. 

211 


HELLENISM 

His  reflections  manifest  the  influence  of  Stoic 
thought,  which  is  also  apparent  in  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon  and  the  works  of  Philo.  Many  of  his 
philosophical  concepts  are  directly  taken  from  Stoic 
writings,  but  he  adopts  only  those  elements  of 
Stoicism  which  are  in  harmony  with  the  Jewish  out- 
look. The  impersonal  Providence  of  the  Greek 
school  becomes  with  him  the  Providence  which 
protected  the  patriarchs;  and  he  asserts  the  union 
between  the  body  and  the  soul  in  the  creation  of 
God.  He  holds  fast  to  Jewish  moderation,  and 
shows  no  favor  to  asceticism  and  other-wordli- 
ness.  Piety  consists  in  strong  self-control,  not  in 
flight  from  the  world.  Jewish  faith  is  deepened 
by  contrast  with  pagan  godlessness;  and  the  heroic 
deeds  of  the  Maccabean  martyrs  are  illuminated 
by  the  light  of  Hellenistic  ethics. 

A  third  apology  for  the  Jewish  law,  of  which 
we  know  not  the  real  author,  is  preserved  in  frag- 
ments under  the  name  of  Aristobulus.'"  The  pas- 
sages profess  to  come  from  a  treatise  on  "  The 
Interpretation  of  the  Holy  Laws,"  written  by  that 
Aristobulus  "  who  appears  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Second  Book  of  Maccabees  as  a  leading  man 
among  the  Egyptian  Jews  and  the  teacher  of 
Ptolemy.     If  the  work  were  properly  ascribed  to 

212 


THE  HELLENISTIC- JEWISH  LITERATURE 

him,  It  would  date  from  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century  B.  C.  E. ;  but  though  It  is  possible  that  the 
historical  Arlstobulus  was  an  early  exponent  of  an 
eclectic  Graeco-Jewlsh  philosophy,  the  Internal  evi- 
dence points  to  an  origin  some  three  centuries  later. 
The  fragments  reveal  a  more  advanced  stage  of 
Hellenlzatlon  than  Is  shown  by  the  Letter  of  Arls- 
teas,  and  the  Fourth  Book  of  the  Maccabees.    The 
book  Is  first  referred  to  by  Clement  of  Alexandria 
who  flourished  about  200  C.  E.,  and  modern  schol- 
ars have  concluded  that  It  Is  later  than  the  works  of 
Phllo  whom  the  writer  copies,  though  often  not 
understanding  him  aright."    The  position  assumed 
Is  that  Greek  philosophy  Is  derived  from  the  He- 
brew wisdom;  and  the  thesis  Is  supported  by  spu- 
rious quotations  from  popular  Greek  poetry  of  pre- 
historic times.       These  ideas  and  methods  were 
commonly  accepted  In  the  second  century,  the  golden 
age  of  literary  forgery,  by  early  Christian  scholars, 
and  through  them  passed  Into  the  thought  of  the 
Middle  Ages.     Several  of  the  fragments  contain 
justifications  of  the  Mosaic  law,  based  on  allegori- 
cal Interpretations  or  the  attachment  of  Greek  con- 
ceptions.    Thus  a  passage  on  the  meaning  of  the 
Sabbath  contains   a   Pythagorean  dilation  on  the 
power  of  the  number  seven,  which  may  be  com- 

213 


HELLENISM 

pared  with  the  treatment  of  the  Book  of  Jubilees." 
The  apologists  whom  we  have  hitherto  considered 
were  essentially  concerned  with  the  defence  of  the 
Mosaic  laws  by  their  Interpretation  according  to 
Greek  notions.  Arlstobulus  is  partly  engaged  on 
the  same  object,  but  he  is  also  anxious  to  asso- 
ciate the  Hebraic  Idea  of  God  with  the  theology 
of  the  Greek  philosophers,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  explain  away  the  anthropomorphisms  of  the 
biblical  narrative.  These  were  the  motives  also  of 
the  Phllonic  allegory;  and  though  not  nearly  as 
elaborate  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos  in  Phllo,  the 
conception  of  God's  activity  which  appears  In  Arls- 
tobulus Is  the  same  In  kind.  Commenting  on  the 
narrative  of  the  creation,  he  said:  "  It  may  all  be 
ascribed  to  the  Wisdom ;  for  all  light  cometh  from 
her;  and  some  of  the  Peripatetics  have  said  that  she 
is  the  torch-bearer."  He  warns  Ptolemy  against 
taking  literally  the  passages  of  Scripture  which  as- 
cribe to  the  purely  spiritual  God  hands  and  arms 
and  face  and  feet;  and  calls  on  him  to  attend  to  the 
philosophical  interpretation;  for  Moses  often  hid 
his  meaning  beneath  allegories.  The  physical 
miracles  which  attended  the  decalogue  are  ecstatic 
illusions  of  the  assembled  Israelites;  and  when  the 
Bible  speaks  of  the  hand  of  God  being  heavy  on  the 

214 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

Egyptians,  It  signifies  the  divine  power,  because  all 
power  and  energy  are  conceived  to  lie  In  the  hand. 
We  must  now  turn  back  to  the  more  popular 
Jewish  propaganda  which  was  spread  by  pseudepl- 
graphlcal  works,  partly  in  prose  and  partly  in  the 
guise  of  archaic  Greek  poetry.     There  Is  little  to 
guide  us  to  the  authors  or  the  age  of  Its  various 
components.     As  to  the  most  famous  part,   the 
Sibylline  oracles,  it  is  clear  that  their  composition 
was  spread  over  a  long  period,  and  represents  sev- 
eral religious  standpoints.    They  cover,  indeed,  the 
whole    progress    of    the   Jewish    advance    against 
paganism,  from  Its  original  outburst  after  the  Mac- 
cabean  triumph   to   its   final   transformation   Into 
Christianity.     Among  the  pseudo-historical  glorifi- 
cations of  Judaism  the  most  remarkable  are  two 
books  on  the  Jews  and  on  Abraham  which  were 
composed  in  the  name  of  Hecatseus  of  Abdera. 
The  genuine  Hecataeus  was  a  court  historian  of 
Ptolemy  Soter  (about  280  B.  C.  E.)  who  wrote  a 
history  of  Egypt,  dealing  not  only  with  outward 
events  but  with  the  beliefs  and  laws  of  the  peoples 
who  were  brought  under  the  Ptolemaic  sway.     A 
Greek   historian,    Diodorus,    has   preserved    frag- 
ments of  his  description  of  the  Jews  in  which  he 
recognizes  their  lofty  Idea  of  divinity  and  their 


215 


HELLENISM 

Staunchness    to    their    ancestral    faith,    though    in 
characteristic  Greek  fashion  he  represents  that  the 
heavens  were  their  sole  God.      But  the  spurious 
Hecatasus,   who   is   first  quoted   in   the   Letter   of 
Aristeas  and  may  be  the  creation  of  the  writer  of 
the  letter,  far  outdoes  his  model  in  praise  of  the 
Jews.    ''  They  undergo,"  he  says,  "  with  exemplary 
courage  all  manner  of  tortures  and  the  most  cruel 
deaths  rather  than  break  the  institutions  of  their 
ancestors."      The  motive   for  their  settlement  in 
Alexandria  was  that  Alexander  wished  to  honor 
their  courage  and  their  loyalty.     He  explains  the 
absence  of  any  mention  of  the  people  of  Israel  in 
the  ancient  writers  on  the  ground  that  the  teaching 
of  the  holy  books  of  the  Jews  was  too  pure  and  too 
sacred  to  be  understood.     Lastly  he  quotes  a  num- 
ber of  apocryphal  verses  of  the  Greek  tragedian 
Sophocles  in  favor  of  the  divine  unity,  and  others 
purporting  to  be  from  the  comic  poet  Philemon 
about  the  punishment  of  hidden  sins  by  the  all- 
knowing  and  just  God.     In  brief,  pseudo-Hecatasus 
says  just  the  things  which  the  Jewish  apologists 
wanted  the  Greeks  to  believe  of  their  creed,  and 
provides  just  that  evidence  which  the  Jewish  apolo- 
gists required  to  impress  the  Hellenistic  world. 

216 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

The  Judalzing  poem  ascribed  to  Phocylides,  a 
famous  Greek  moralist  of  early  tmies,  is  similar 
in  purport.     Already  in  the  seventeenth  century 
Scaliger,  the  scholar  who  took  a  harsh  view  of  the 
morality  of  this  literature,  pointed  out  that  the 
poems  revealed  either  a  Hellenistic-Jewish  or  a 
Christian  author;  and  the  later  researches  of  Ber- 
nays  "  have  proved  that  the  former  is  the  true  al- 
ternative.    Occasionally,  as  the  text  stands,  notions 
appear  which  are  derogatory  to  pure  monotheism ; 
but  Bernays  has  shown  ingeniously  that  these  pas- 
sages   contain    glosses    or    mistakes,    and    can    be 
emended  so  as  at  once  to  get  rid  of  the  offending 
words  and  improve  the  sense.     The  moralist  em- 
phasizes those  aspects  of  the  Mosaic  law  which  ob- 
viously breathe  a  broad  humanitarian  spirit,  and  he 
forbears  from  denouncing  pagan  degradation.    He 
says  nothing  of  the  sabbath  or  of  sacrifices,  but 
expatiates  on  the  commandment  against  the  taking 
of  a  mother-bird  with  her  young  from  the  same 
nest,"  or  the  eating  of  anything  torn  from  wild 
animals.     Writing  perhaps  at  a  period  when  the 
Jewish  mission  was  not  yet  self-confident,  he  does 
not  directly  attack  the  worship  of  idols,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  speaks  of  God  as  a  unity.     Tenta- 
tively and  covertly  he  propagates  the  Jewish  teach- 

217 


HELLENISM 

Ing  as  "  the  mysteries  of  righteousness,"  conveying 
his  medicine,  so  to  say,  in  a  tasteless  pill,  and  invest- 
ing it  with  the  attraction  of  a  secret  cult. 

The  Jewish  sages  of  the  Middle  Ages  distin- 
guished between  the  statutes  and  ordinances  which 
have  a  validity  for  mankind  and  those  which  are 
the  special  heritage  of  Israel  and  concern  ritual. 
The  pseudo-Phocylides,  in  the  same  spirit,  selects 
only  the  former  for  recommendation  to  the  Gen- 
tiles whom  he  wished  to  affect.  It  probably  is  not 
that  Hellenistic  influence  led  him  to  disregard  the 
national  observances  of  Judaism;  but  in  preaching 
broadcast  a  moral  mission,  it  was  expedient  to  keep 
them  in  the  background  and  to  emphasize  the 
ethical  precepts. 

A  bolder  standpoint  marks  the  earliest  of  the 
Sibylline  Oracles,  which  is  generally  admitted  to 
be  the  third  of  our  numbering.  The  present  collec- 
tion comes  from  a  Christian  monk  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, and  is  in  hopeless  disorder.  It  contains  four- 
teen books  all  in  hexameter  verse,  and  dating  from 
the  second  century  before  the  Christian  era  to  the 
time  of  Constantine  (about  300  C.  E.).  The 
Judaizing  purpose  and  doctrine  of  some  of  the 
oracles  are  so  thinly  veiled  that  even  the  critics  of 
antiquity  recognized  a  Jewish  Sibyl.     Pausanias, 

218 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

the  famous  arch^ologlst  of  the  third  century,  In 
discussing  the  various  Sibyls,  says:   ''  One  of  them 
was  an  oracle-glving  seeress  on  behalf  of  Palestine, 
named  Sabbe;  some  called  her,  too,  the  Babylonian,' 
others  the  Egyptian  Sibyl."  "    The  greater  part  of 
the  third  oracle  and  the  prologue  of  the  first,  which 
appear  to  be  the  work  of  one  author,  have  demon- 
strably an  Egyptian  origin,  because  there  Is  a  delib- 
erate and  sustained  attack  on  the  Egyptian  worship. 
Animated  with  greater  daring  than  the  writer  who 
used  the  mask  of  Phocylldes,  the  poet  at  once  bursts 
into  an  invective  against  idolatry:    "Are  ye  not 
ashamed,  ye  mortals,  to  make  gods  of  cats  and 
brutes,  fools  to  adore  snakes,  dogs,  weasels,  and 
birds  of  air,  and  creeping  things  of  earth  and  images 
of  stone,  statues  made  by  hand,  and  cairns  by  the 
roadside?"     He  passes  on  to  praise  the  Jewish 
people,    not   by  name,    but   by   clear   indications: 
"  There  is  a  race  of  pious  men,  who  live  about  the 
temple  of  Solomon  and  have  their  origin  from  Ur 
of  the  Chaldees.     They  do  not  worship  the  sun  or 
the  moon,  nor  pay  heed  to  miracles  or  sorcerers  or 
astrologers.     They  practise  justice  and  virtue,  and 
have  no  greed  for  money;  they  have  just  weights 
and  measures;  they  do  not  rob  each  other,  nor  re- 
move the  landmarks  of  their  neighbours.    The  rich 

219 


HELLENISM 

man  does  not  oppress  the  poor  or  afflict  the  widow, 
but  gives  them  part  of  his  harvest  according  to  the 
sacred  law  of  God."  "  The  Sibyl  claims  to  be  the 
true  prophetess  sprung  from  Babylon,  and  she  at- 
tacks Homer  for  the  false  doctrines  which  he  zvill 
utter  in  times  to  come  to  the  Greeks,  suggesting, 
forsooth,  that  Homer  was  the  plagiarist,  and  she 
the  original  writer  of  hexameter  verse.  *'  A  false- 
writing  seer  will  appear  among  them  ....  who 
will  master  my  words  and  my  verses."  Without  a 
doubt  the  Jewish  writer  had  his  fair  share  of  hutz- 
pah.  He  passes  judgment  upon  the  other  nations, 
Babylon,  Egypt,  Gog  and  Magog,  Rome  and  Libya, 
and  foretells  their  downfall  in  the  spirit  of  a  He- 
brew prophet.  He  is  equal  to  making  a  play  on 
words  in  Greek, 

Saraos  sLall  be  sand,  and  Delos  deleted,  and  Rome  a  ruin," 

where  he  adroitly  imitates  the  assonance  ia 
Zephaniah  (2.  4)  : 

For  Gaza  shall  be  forsaken 
And  Ashkelon  a  desolation. 

If,  as  can  hardly  be  doubted,  the  writer  had  the 
Hebrew  model  before  him,  it  shows  how  fully  Jew- 
ish he  was  in  mind  and  training.  The  promise  of 
the  Messianic  kingdom  and  the  description  of  the 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

Messianic  age  likewise  follow  the  traditional  He- 
brew ideas :  "  From  the  East  God  will  send  a  king 
who  will  put  an  end  to  all  war  on  earth,  killing 
some,  and  fulfilling  the  prophecies  for  others.  And 
he  will  act  not  according  to  his  own  counsels,  but  in 
obedience  to  the  righteous  commands  of  God. 
Peace  shall  prevail  among  the  kings  of  the  earth, 
and  God  shall  set  up  an  eternal  kingdom  over  all 
men."  "  Throughout  the  poem  he  offers  little  In- 
dication of  Hellenistic  thought,  save  that  he  be- 
trays a  special  affection  for  Hellas,  and  associates 
the  Greek  myth  of  the  giants  with  the  Bible  story 
of  the  flood.  But  In  his  conclusion,  where  he  fore- 
tells the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  Jewish  return, 
and  the  Paradise  that  awaits  the  righteous,  his 
voice  is  the  voice  of  a  Jeremiah  or  a  Malachi, 
though  his  meter  is  the  meter  of  Homer.  "  The 
glorious  restoration  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  ac- 
knowledgment by  the  whole  world  of  the  religious 
doctrines  of  the  Jews,  are  to  him  not  matters  of 
faith  but  certainty."  '° 

The  fourth  oracle  is  likewise,  in  all  probability, 
the  work  of  an  Alexandrian  Jew.  It  praises  the 
Jewish  people  by  allusion.  In  the  manner  of  the 
earlier  poem  :  "  Happy  shall  be  those  who  love  the 
great  God,  praising  Him  before  meat  and  drink. 
15  221 


HELLENISM 

Nought  have  they  to  do  with  sanctuaries  and  altars, 
the  seat  of  dumb  stones  soiled  with  the  blood  of 
animals.  Other  peoples  imitate  not  their  piety 
and  their  w^ays,  but  in  their  folly  sneer  and  mock, 
imputing  to  them  their  own  evil  doings."  The 
fifth  oracle,  though  in  its  present  form  it  contains 
considerable  Christian  interpolations,  has  been  as- 
cribed to  a  Palestinian  Jew.  Written  after  the 
destruction  of  the  temple,  it  is  full  of  lamentations 
for  the  national  disaster,  but  it  breathes  a  hope  in 
the  coming  reappearance  of  a  savior,  who  is  de- 
scribed in  the  allusive  manner  of  the  apocalypses 
of  the  time.  '*  An  excellent  man  will  come  from 
Heaven,  the  best  of  the  Hebrews,  whose  hands 
approached  the  fruitful  rod;  who  once  stayed  the 
sun  (comp.  Joshua,  lo.  12),  and  spoke  with  beauti- 
ful speech  and  holy  life." 

Possibly  the  expected  savior  is  Joshua,  whom 
the  Samaritans  especially  revered,  and  in  that  case 
the  author  would  be  a  Samaritan  Jew.  Many  of 
the  succeeding  oracles  are  by  Christians  who  early 
adopted  this  form  of  propaganda,  and  were  dubbed 
by  Celsus  in  reproach  ''  Sibyllistae,"  so  fond  were 
they  of  using  it  for  missionary  purposes."  But  as 
late  as  the  fourth  century  of  the  Christian  era  there 
are   prophecies   of   the   restoration   of  Jerusalem 

222 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

which  must  be  the  work  of  the  Jews.  Sibylline 
verses  were  co-termlnous  with  the  Jewish  mission- 
ary activity,  and  formed  one  of  its  most  notable 
expressions. 

The  Sibylline  Oracles  and  the  apocalypses,  it 
has  been  said,  are  twins ;  but  they  are  twins  easily 
distinguished  In  character  and  appearance.  The 
SIbyllines  were  addressed  to  the  pagan  masses 
by  way  of  exhortation  and  warning,  the  various 
apocalypses  to  the  Jewish  people  by  way  of  en- 
couragement; the  SIbyllines  are  uniformly  com- 
posed in  Greek  hexameter  verse,  the  apocalypses 
are  written  either  in  prose  or  In  the  prose-poetry 
of  the  prophetic  books  of  the  Bible.  In  times  of 
trouble  and  stress,  such  as  were  frequent  from  the 
time  that  the  Jews  came  under  Roman  sway,  part 
of  the  Jewish  people,  more  particularly  the  less 
educated  and  the  less  staunch,  desired  the  Messianic 
visions  and  glorious  promises  of  Israel's  future  in 
the  books  of  the  prophets  to  be  expanded  for  them. 
In  their  longing  for  a  knowledge  of  the  working 
of  God,  they  required  accounts  of  the  creation  more 
detailed  than  the  opening  of  Genesis;  and  affected 
by  the  astrology  and  mystical  lore  of  the  time,  they 
loved  to  hear  accounts  of  the  celestial  wonders 
which  were  stored  up  in  the  heavens  above.   Lastly, 

.223 


HELLENISM 

in  the  gloom  of  Roman  oppression  and  the  con- 
viction of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  they  hun- 
gered for  pictures  of  the  rewards  and  punishments 
in  the  future  world  which  they  could  not  find  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures.  These  yearnings  prompted 
the  apocalypses,  which  date  from  the  Persian  period 
of  Jewish  history.  Apocalypse  therefore  in  one 
way  continues  the  message  of  the  prophets  in  the 
light  of  the  Persian  and  Hellenistic  culture,  but 
it  differs  markedly  in  its  form.  The  prophets  con- 
veyed their  teaching  by  direct  spoken  utterance ;  the 
apocalyptic  writers  by  symbols  and  parables,  as  a 
kind  of  secret  wisdom  to  be  understood  only  by  the 
initiated.  Their  work  bears  the  same  relation  to 
the  classic  Hebrew  prophecy  as  the  far-fetched 
conceits  of  the  Jacobean  poets  to  the  full  and  out- 
spoken utterance  of  the  Elizabethans.  The  proph- 
ets spoke  In  their  own  name,  the  apocalyptics 
ascribed  their  revelations  to  the  hoary  figures  of  the 
past  or  to  the  heroes  of  by-gone  generations. 

The  biblical  books  which  stand  midway  between 
classical  prophecy  and  apocalypse  are  Zechariah 
and  Ezeklel,  which  in  their  form  are  of  the  same 
class  as  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  but  In  much  of  their 
content  are  parallel  with  the  celestial  visions  of  a 
later  age.     The  book  of  Daniel  is  a  more  purely 

224 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

apocalyptic  book  which  found  its  way  into  the  He- 
brew Canon  of  Scripture.  It  purports  to  be  writ- 
ten during  the  Babylonian  captivity ;  but  its  detailed 
account  of  the  Seleucid  dynasty  under  the  guise  of 
prophecy  shows  that  it  was  composed  in  the  Hel- 
lenistic period  and  under  Hellenistic  influence.  The 
other  works  of  this  class,  though  originally  com- 
posed in  Hebrew,  have  survived  only  in  Greek  or 
Aramaic,  or  some  other  version. 

As  the  Jewish  missionaries  to  the  heathens  used 
the  name  of  a  mythical  seeress  or  a  popular  poet 
to  convey  their  sermons,  so  the  apocalyptics  regu- 
larly used  one  of  the  progenitors  of  the  race,  or 
some  famous  teacher  of  historical  times,  to  cloak 
their  speculations.  The  visions  and  prophecies  bear 
the  names  of  Adam  and  Eve,  Noah,  Enoch,  and 
the  patriarchs,  or  of  Baruch  and  Ezra  and  Jere- 
miah. An  exception  to  the  rule  is  the  book  known 
to  us  as  the  Book  of  Jubilees  or  ^s  "  the  little 
Genesis." "  Its  general  design  is  an  amplifica- 
tion of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  with  various  fan- 
tasies about  angels  and  dreams,  and  the  nature  and 
ordering  of  the  celestial  bodies.  The  whole  pur- 
ports to  be  a  revelation  to  Moses  on  mount  Sinai 
by  an  angel  of  the  Presence.  It  is  the  earhest  ex- 
ample of  haggadic  Midrash,  and  it  contains  many 

225 


HELLENISM 

legends  which  appear  In  later  Midrashlm.  But 
what  gives  the  book  its  title,  and  what  is  peculiar 
to  it,  is  the  holiness  which  is  predicted  of  certain 
numbers,  notably  of  seven  and  fifty,  and  the  elab- 
orate attempt  to  formulate  a  chronology  by  them. 
The  mystical  veneration  of  numbers  was  a  com- 
monplace of  Hellenistic  culture  and  typical  of  its 
looseness  of  thinking.  Derived  from  Chaldea,  and 
fostered  by  the  Pythagorean  brotherhoods,  it 
seized  on  the  civilized  world  as  a  cardinal  principle 
of  thought.  Philo  and  Aristobulus  as  well  as  the 
author  of  Jubilees  are  affected  by  it  in  their  treat- 
ment of  the  Sabbath,  but  with  the  difference  that 
they  point  out  the  virtue  of  numbers  in  relation  to 
universal  things,  while  he  does  so  in  relation  to 
Jewish  observance  and  beliefs.  There  are  seven 
days  of  Passover  and  Tabernacles,  and  seven  days 
of  Holy  Convocation.  The  Fast  of  Atonement  is 
observed  in  the  seventh  month;  there  are  seven 
pieces  of  holy  furniture  in  the  Tabernacle,  and  seven 
branches  of  the  Holy  Candelabra.  Seven  is  the 
number  of  forgiveness,  of  the  covenant,  of  holiness, 
perfection,  and  rest.  Of  other  Hellenistic  influ- 
ences in  the  book  there  is  little  indication,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  writer  emphasizes  the  separate- 
ness  of  the  Jewish  people.     Israel  m.ay  not  asso- 

226 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

date  or  intermarry  with  the  Gentiles  because  they 
sacrifice  to  the  dead  and  worship  evil  spirits;  be- 
cause their  ways  are  unclean,  and  they  will  be 
destroyed  from  the  earth.  The  original  language 
was  probably  Hebrew  or  Aramaic.  With  the  rest 
of  the  apocalyptic  literature  it  dropped  out  of  gen- 
eral Jewish  tradition  in  the  second  or  third  century; 
but  it  was  known  to  the  writers  of  Midrash  and  of 
the  gaonic  period,  and  also  to  the  Karaites,  and  it 
remained  a  holy  book  to  the  remote  branch  of  the 
people  in  Abyssinia  which  has  survived  in  the 
Falashas. 

Another  apocalypse  preserved  through  the  ven- 
eration of  the  Abyssinian  sect  is  the  Book  of  Enoch, 
of  which  an  Ethiopic  version  came  to  light  in  1773. 
Enoch  was  a  favorite  figure  with  the  authors  of 
revelations,  because  of  the  mysterious  saying  of 
the  Bible  about  him:  "And  Enoch  walked  with 
God,  and  he  was  not;  for  God  took  him."  ''  Besides 
the  Ethiopic  book,  which  itself  is  a  compilation  of 
five  sources,  a  "  Book  of  the  Secrets  of  Enoch  " 
is  preserved  in  the  Slavonic.  The  older  Book  of 
Enoch,  it  is  conjectured,  is  derived  from  a  pre- 
Christian  Hebrew  original.  It  is  the  most  com- 
prehensive of  the  apocryphal  books;  it  reveals  the 
secret  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  of  the  kingdom 

227 


HELLENISM 

of  the  angels,  of  the  last  judgment,  of  the  Messianic 
age,  and  of  the  cataclysms  In  nature  which  are  to 
precede  it.  The  secrets  are  conveyed  in  visions 
which  Enoch  receives  in  his  passage  through 
heaven;  the  vision  of  Wisdom,  where  he  imparts 
in  the  form  of  parables  the  revelation  of  the  spirit- 
ual world,  and  also  an  explanation  of  the  great 
natural  phenomena  based  on  a  confused  medley  of 
the  physics  of  the  day;  the  vision  of  the  revolution 
of  the  lights  of  heaven,  which  is  likewise  a  rambling 
recital,  In  poetic  language,  of  the  popular  astron- 
omy; and  the  vision  of  the  historical  world-process, 
which  is  in  the  normal  manner  of  prophetic  teach- 
ing. The  vision  of  the  Messiah  manifests  a  blend- 
ing of  Hebraic  and  Hellenistic  conceptions.  The 
Anointed  of  the  pure  Jewish  conception,  who  ap- 
pears first  in  Isaiah's  prophecies,  was  to  be  a  na- 
tional hero  of  the  house  of  David,  ushering  in  the 
era  of  righteousness  and  peace: 

And  there  shall  come  forth  a  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse, 
And  a  twig  shall  grow  forth  out  of  his  roots.'^ 

Now  the  development  of  the  conception  under  the 
stimulus  of  foreign  persecution  during  the  Macca- 
bean  period  Is  clearly  shown  in  the  Psalms  of  Solo- 
mon, a  liturgical  composition  of  the  first  century  be- 
fore the  common  era.   ''  God  will  raise  up  a  prince 

228 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

of  the  house  of  David  to  rule  over  Israel,  to  crush 
their  enemies,  and  to  purify  Jerusalem  from  the 
heathen  ....  The  heathen  nations  will  serve 
him,  and  come  to  Jerusalem  to  see  the  glory  of  the 
Lord.  He  is  a  righteous  king,  taught  of  God,  and 
there  shall  be  no  unrighteousness  in  his  days."  '" 
This  form  of  the  Messianic  hope  found  permanent 
expression  in  one  of  the  earliest  prayers  of  the 
liturgy,  the  Eighteen  Benedictions,  and  was  adopted 
in  Pharisaic  Judaism  as  an  integral  part  of  Jewish 
belief.  But  Hellenistic  speculation  fostered  the  no- 
tion of  a  more  etherealized  and,  so  to  say,  theolog- 
ical Messiah.  The  Primal  or  Divine  Man,  who 
plays  a  large  part  in  the  work  of  creation,  was  one 
of  the  fixed  ideas  of  the  current  theology.  He  is  the 
central  figure  in  Orphic  eschatologies;  and  perhaps 
through  this  source,  perhaps  by  a  less  direct  fusion 
of  thought,  he  found  his  way  into  the  circle  of  Jew- 
ish apocalyptics,  and  changed  the  notion  of  the  Mes- 
siah from  a  terrestrial  king  to  the  celestial  being. 
So  Enoch,  who  in  one  verse  tells  of  the  coming  of  the 
national  redeemer,  in  another  passage  sees  dwelling 
in  heaven  the  Righteous  One,  "  the  Elect  who  is 
chosen  and  hidden  before  God  before  the  creation 
of  the  world,  and  will  be  before  Him  for  ever- 
more.'' "  He  is  spoken  of  variously  as  "  the  Son  of 

229 


HELLENISM 

Woman  "  or  "  the  Son  of  Man,"  ''  and  many  of 
the  attributes  of  the  Wisdom  and  the  Logos  are 
transferred  to  him :  "  His  name  was  called  by  God 
before  the  sun  and  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  were 
created  ....  He  sits  on  the  throne  of  God;  the 
source  of  Wisdom  pours  forth  from  the  thoughts 
of  his  mouth."  "  The  Heavenly  Man  in  the  Greek 
myth  is  the  intermediary  of  creation;  in  the  Jew- 
ish apocalypse  he  is  the  divine  agent  at  the  end  of 
the  world-process.  "  At  the  end  of  time  the  Lord 
will  reveal  him  to  the  world,  in  order  that  he  may 
judge  all  creatures  in  accordance  with  the  end  to 
which  God  has  chosen  him  from  the  beginning."  ^ 

Side  by  side  with  the  idealized  conception  of 
the  Messiah,  the  Book  of  Enoch  and  the  Ascen- 
sions contain  materialistic  pictures  of  the  after- 
world,  from  which  the  finer  instinct  of  the  old 
Hebrew  prophecy  held  back.  Sensuous  earthly 
hopes  find  expression  in  the  description  of  Para- 
dise; foreign  elements  taken  from  Egyptian  and 
Chaldean  sources  are  combined  with  prophetic 
images,  and  jumbled  together  in  a  confused  pic- 
ture we  have  "  green  meadows  and  sulphurous 
abysses;  white  horses  and  frightful  beasts." 
Strange  again  to  the  simple  Hebraic  idea  of  God's 
working  is  the  introduction  of  evil  angels,  Azazel, 

230 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

who  has  the  functions  of  a  Power  of  Darkness,  and 
Penlel,  who  tempts  men  with  dangerous  gifts,'"  in- 
cluding the  gift  of  writing.  We  may  find  parallels 
for  these  features  in  the  contemporary  religious 
literature;  and  in  general  it  may  be  said  that  the 
apocalyptic  literature  is  impregnated  with  elements 
borrowed  from  the  ethical-religious  philosophy  and 
the  realistic  theosophy  of  the  environment,  and 
imperfectly  fused  with  the  Jewish  teaching  which 
formed  the  basis  of  the  vision.  The  Alexandrian 
sages  syncretized  Greek  philosophy  with  the 
Torah;  the  authors  of  the  Palestinian  apocalypse 
syncretized  Hellenistic  mysticism  with  Jewish 
prophecy. 

A  section  of  theosophists  and  gnostics  went  be- 
yond the  standpoint  of  the  author  of  our  apoc- 
alypse, as  Is  shown  by  his  denunciation  of  "  those 
who  altered  the  words  of  truth,  and  treated  the 
words  of  the  holy  and  great  One  as  lies."  They 
perpetrated  lying  works,  and  wrote  books  about 
their  speech;  and  they  abandoned  the  Inheritance 
of  their  fathers  which  endureth  for  ever.  They  were 
akin.  It  seems,  to  those  excessive  followers  of  the 
allegorlsts  of  Alexandria,  attacked  by  Phllo,  who 
made  their  spiritual  interpretation  a  ground  for  re- 
jecting the  observance  of  the  Law.   These  extrava- 

231 


HELLENISM 

gant  searchers  into  the  secret  doctrines  were  so  in- 
tent on  the  affairs  of  heaven  and  the  orbits  of  angels, 
that  they  ceased  to  regard  the  law  of  conduct  In  this 
world.  They  established  a  dualism  between 
heaven  and  earth,  and  sought  to  fill  the  gulf  they 
had  created  by  intermediary  powers.  In  this  they 
wandered  from  the  spirit  of  Judaism,  and  opened 
the  way  to  dangerous  heresy.  The  pseud- 
eplgraphlc  Enoch  enlarges  quaintly  upon  the  dan- 
gers of  writing,  by  which  these  disloyal  teachers  are 
able  to  perpetuate  their  doctrlnes.^^ 

The  Slavonic  Book  of  Enoch,  which  is  derived 
from  a  Greek  original  (though  parts  of  the  work 
may  have  been  founded  on  Hebrew  writings) , bears 
unmistakable  traces  of  Greek  influence  not  only  in 
doctrine  but  In  certain  suggestive  details.  Thus 
Adam's  name  is  derived  from  the  initial  Greek  let- 
ters of  the  four  quarters  of  the  world:  "  *'  And  I 
gave  him  a  name  from  the  four  substances,  the 
east,  the  west,  the  north,  and  the  south."**  As 
the  root  Adam  has  only  three  letters  in  the  He- 
brew, the  fancy  here  must  be  Greek.  Moreover 
the  writer  several  times  follows  the  Septuagint  In 
preference  to  the  Hebrew  Bible,  and  he  reproduces 
the  words  of  Eccleslasticus,  apparently  from  the 
Greek  version :  "  God  made  man  in  His  own  image 

232 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

after  His  own  likeness,  and  placed  In  him  eyes  to 
see,  and  ears  to  hear,  and  a  head  to  undrestand."  " 
His  doctrine  Is  occasionally  reminiscent  of  the  spec- 
ulations of  Phllo  and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  as 
when  he  says  that  the  existent  was  created  from  the 
non-existent,  and  the  visible  from  the  Invisible ;  and 
that  every  soul  was  created  eternally  before  the 
creation  of  the  world.  Is  it  strange  that  these 
books,  with  their  mingling  of  Greek  and  Jewish 
cosmology  and  with  their  strange  doctrines  of 
angels,  incurred  the  disfavor  of  the  Rabbis?  Like 
the  sensational  fiction  of  our  day,  they  filled  their 
readers  with  wild  ideas,  and  nourished  dangerous 
expectations. 

Another  work  of  this  class,  but  recently  dis- 
covered In  the  Syrlac,  is  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch, 
which  seems  to  be  a  translation  of  a  lost  Greek 
version.  It  may  have  spnmg  from  a  Palestinian 
original,  for  It  contains  few  traces  of  Hellenistic 
philosophy;  and  parallel  passages  are  found  in  the 
MIdrash  on  Lamentations.  The  writer,  indeed,  em- 
phatically declares  for  the  creation  of  the  earthly 
before  the  heavenly  sanctuary:  "  Dost  thou  think 
that  this  Is  the  city  of  which  I  said  '  by  the  palms  pf 
my  hands  have  I  graven  thee  '  ?  It  is  not  this  build- 
ing which  Is  now  built  In  your  midst.  It  is  that  which 

233 


HELLENISM 

will  be  revealed  with  all  that  was  prepared  before- 
hand, from  the  time  when  I  took  counsel  to  make 
Paradise,  and  showed  it  to  Adam  himself  before  he 
sinned."  But  the  notion  of  an  ideal  creation  pre- 
ceding the  material  world,  if  indeed  it  did  not 
spring  from  native  Hebraic  fancy,  was  known  early 
to  Palestinian  theology. 

The  Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs '"  was 
probably  in  origin  a  Hebrew  product.  But  we  have 
It  only  In  Its  Greek  version,  filled  with  Chrlsto- 
loglcal  Interpolations.  Greek  Influence  shows  itself 
In  the  feature  that  each  patriarch  typifies  a  particu- 
lar virtue.  Joseph  stands  for  moderation;  Naph- 
tall  for  natural  goodness;  Gad  for  hatred.  The 
habit  of  associating  a  biblical  character  with  a 
special  attribute  Is  distinctively,  if  not  exclusively, 
Hellenistic;  and  the  influence  of  Greek  models  Is 
shown  In  the  form  of  the  addresses  of  each  patri- 
arch, which  are  exhortations  after  the  style  of  the 
moral  tract  known  as  the  "  diatribe." 

Another  Hellenistic  composition  which  has  been 
handed  down  full  of  Chrlstological  Interpolations, 
but  probably  was  Jewish  In  its  original  form.  Is  the 
book  of  the  Odes  of  Solomon.  The  Odes  have  not 
as  marked  a  national  character  as  the  Psalms  of 
Solomon,  which  are  undoubtedly  the  work  of  a 

234 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

Palestinian  Jew;  but  on  the  strength  of  references 
to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  scholars  tend  to  the 
opinion  that  they  were  written  before  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  sanctuary.''  The  writer  has  carried  to 
a  further  point  than  any  contemporary  Jew  the 
tendency  to  symbolism  and  the  use  of  Hellenistic 
imagery.  His  odes  resemble  the  Grseco-Egyptian 
hymns  such  as  we  find  in  the  Hermetic  literature, 
and  parallels  with  many  of  his  specific  images  may 
be  found  in  Philo. 

Philonic  doctrine  is  recalled  in  another  book  of 
revelation,  the  Assumption  of  Moses,  which  is 
preserved  only  in  a  Latin  version.  As  Philo  identi- 
fies Moses  with  the  divine  Logos,  so  in  the  Assump- 
tion Moses  declares  of  himself:  "  From  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  I  have  been  stored  up  with  God 
to  be  the  mediator  of  His  Law."  Notions  of  medi- 
ating powers  and  their  incarnation  in  human  form 
were  subsequently  to  play  a  large  part  in  Christian- 
ity. The  raw  material  of  Christian  theology,  in- 
deed, is  to  be  found  in  either  the  apocalyptic  litera- 
ture of  Palestine  or  the  allegorical  exegesis  of 
Alexandria,  which  were  fused  together  in  the 
second  century. 

The  most  attractive  and  the  most  sublime  crea- 
tion of  the  whole  apocalyptic  class  is  the  Book  of 

235 


HELLENISM 

Ezra,  generally  designated  as  the  Fourth."   It  was 
written  In  Hebrew,  though  now  surviving  only  in 
versions,  and  it  is  true  almost  throughout  to  the 
Pharisaic     standpoint     of     Judaism.     Composed 
shortly   after   the    destruction    of   the   temple   by 
Titus,    it    offers    an    admirable    contrast    to    the 
outlook  of  the  prophets  of  the  Restoration,  and 
indicates  the  new  elements  which  Judaism  had  ab- 
sorbed into  its  creed  from  its  contact  with  the  world 
since  the  Babylonian  captivity.     The  soul  of  the 
prophet,  after  much  struggle  and  questioning,  re- 
ceives through  a  series  of  celestial  visions  assurance 
of  God's  grace   and   justice,   and  of  the  coming 
of  the  blessed  age  of  the   Messiah.     The  mes- 
sages  are   conveyed   sometimes   directly  by   God, 
but  for  the  most  part  by  angels,  in  allegories  and 
parables.     The  book  is  full  of  profound  national 
sentiment.     The  question  which  Job  in  his  agony 
had  asked  in  relation  to  the  individual  righteous 
man,    Ezra,    after   the    fall    of   the    second   tem- 
ple, asks  in  relation  to  the  righteous  nation :    Why 
has  God  afflicted  His  chosen  people?     "  Are  they 
of  Babylon  better  than  they  of  Zion?     Or  is  there 
any  other  people  that  knoweth  Thee  beside  Israel? 
Or  what  generation  hath  so  believed  Thy  cove- 
nants as  Jacob?     And  yet  their  reward  appeareth 

236 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

not,  and  their  labour  hath  no  fruit."  "'  The  angel 
Uriel  makes  answer:  "  Thy  heart  hath  gone  too 
far  in  the  world,  and  thinkest  thou  to  comprehend 
the  way  of  the  Most  High?  "  In  a  second  vision 
Ezra  asks:  "Why  hast  Thou  given  this  one 
people  unto  many,  and  upon  the  one  root  hast 
Thou  prepared  others?  And  why  hast  Thou  scat- 
tered Thy  only  people  among  many?  If  Thou 
didst  so  much  hate  Thy  people,  yet  shouldest  Thou 
punish  them  with  Thine  own  hand."  And  the 
angel  asks  in  answer:  "  Lovest  thou  that  people 
better  than  He  that  made  them?  "  He  calls  on 
the  prophet  to  show  him  "  the  image  of  a  voice 
.  .  .  .  then  I  will  declare  to  thee  the  thing  that 
thou  labourest  to  know."  The  last  judgment  and 
the  solution  of  all  these  problems  shall  be  the  work 
of  God  Himself. 

After  seven  days'  fasting  Ezra  has  a  third  vision. 
Having  declared  the  wonder  of  creation,  and 
his  faith  that  this  was  performed  for  the  sake 
of  God's  people,  he  asks:  "  Why  do  not  we  pos- 
sess an  inheritance  with  the  world  ?  "  '"  To  this  the 
angel  answers  that  the  people  now  tread  a  straight 
and  difficult  road,  but  at  the  end  of  it  good  things 
are  laid  up  for  them.  A  Christological  passage, 
which  is  an  interpolation,  follows  in  our  text,  stat- 
16  237 


HELLENISM 

ing  that  the  coming  age  will  bs  ushered  in  by  God's 
own  anointed  son.'"  Then  Ezra  offers  up  beauti- 
ful prayers  for  mercy,  In  the  style  of  a  Selihah;*^ 
and  the  angel  consoles  him  by  the  assurance  that  a 
remnant  shall  be  saved.  "  For  as  the  husbandman 
soweth  much  seed  upon  the  ground  and  planteth 
many  trees,  and  yet  the  thing  that  is  sown  good  in 
his  season  cometh  not  up  ...  .  even  so,  of  them 
that  are  sown  In  the  world,  they  shall  not  all  be 
saved."  ^  This  theme  is  repeated  In  the  next 
vision :  "  The  earth  giveth  much  mould,  whereof 
earthen  vessels  are  made,  but  little  dust  that  gold 
cometh  of."  ''  Very  striking,  too,  is  the  simile 
about  the  immortality  of  the  Law  of  Israel,  which 
survives  the  nation.  "  For  though  it  is  a  custom 
when  the  ground  hath  recelv^ed  seed  or  the  sea  a 
ship  ....  that  that  being  perished  wherein  it 
was  sown  or  cast  into,  that  thing  also  which  was 
sown  or  cast  therein  doth  perish  ....  Yet  with 
us  It  hath  not  happened  so.  For  we  that  have  re- 
ceived the  Law  perish  by  sin,  and  our  heart  also 
which  received  It.  Notwithstanding  the  Law  per- 
Isheth  not,  but  remalneth  In  its  force."  **  The  con- 
solation in  the  national  calamity  is  found  In  the  con- 
viction of  a  second  life,  wherein  the  good  and  evil 
shall  receive  their  due  reward.     The  ways  of  the 

238 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

future  world  are  broad  and  safe,  and  yield  the  fruit 
of  immortality/'  Those  that  contemned  the  Law 
"  shall  not  obtain  entrance  into  the  mansions  of 
the  Highest;  but  shall  stray  without  in  bitter  an- 
guish, sorrowing  with  a  sevenfold  sorrow."  And 
those  that  followed  God's  will  in  this  life  "  shall 
behold  with  joy  unspeakable  the  transcendent 
might  of  Him  Who  hath  caught  them  up  to  be  with 
Himself,  where  their  joy  shall  be   sevenfold  in- 

The  search  for  secret  wisdom  did  not  serve  to 
weaken  in  the  waiter  the  love  of  his  people  and  the 
veneration  for  the  Law.     In  the  following  chap- 
ters he  turns  away  from  the  national  tragedy,  and 
bursts  into  prophecies  about  the  Last  Judgment; 
and  in  the  seventh  and  last  vision,  where  he  de- 
scribes the  revelation  of  the  Sacred  Writings  to 
himself,  he  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  motive 
and  the  origin  of  the  apocryphal  and  apocalyptic 
literature.     Ezra  is  chosen  by  God  to  make  known 
to  His  people  the  whole  of  the  divine  wisdom,  of 
which  part  w^as  given  to  Moses  that  he  should  re- 
veal and  part  that  he  should  keep  secret.     To- 
gether with  the  acceptance  of  an  oral  law,  which 
supplemented  the  written  law  and  was  afterwards 
embodied  in  Mishnah  and  Talmud,  the  people  held 

239 


HELLENISM 

a  belief  In  a  secret  doctrine  of  God  and  His  works 
which  supplemented  the  Torah  and  the  Prophets. 
Ezra,  who,  according  to  tradition,  was  the  first  to 
write  down  the  Bible,  is  appointed  also  to  write  the 
whole  of  the  secret  lore;  but  he  is  to  publish  only 
a  part,  and  part  he  is  to  show  secretly  to  the  wise. 
With  the  aid  of  five  chosen  men  he  writes  ninety- 
four  books,"  and  is  ordered  to  publish  the  first 
twenty- four  books  (i.  e.,  the  Bible)  "  that  the  wor- 
thy and  unworthy  may  read  It  ";  but  to  keep  the 
seventy  last  "  that  thou  mayest  deliver  them  on 
to  such  as  be  wise  among  the  people  ....  For 
in  them  is  the  spring  of  understanding,  the  fountain 
of  wisdom,  and  the  stream  of  knowledge."  Philo, 
in  the  same  spirit,  constantly  speaks  of  his  alle- 
gories of  the  Law  as  divulged  only  to  the  wise  and 
those  initiated  by  piety  and  study  into  the  Inner 
mysteries.  Revelations  In  Palestine  and  theosophy 
In  Alexandria  were  in  theory  reserved  for  the 
chosen  few;  but  in  fact  they  were  vulgarized  by 
being  committed  to  writing. 

Apart  from  the  apocalyptic  literature  and  a  num- 
ber of  the  Sibylline  Oracles,  Palestinian  Jewry  pro- 
duced during  the  Hellenistic  period  several  works 
which  manifest  more  distinctly  the  Influence  of 
Greek    thought    and    Greek    models.      The    one 

240 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

Palestinian  Hellenist  of  lasting  repute  was  Jo- 
sephus,  the  historian  and  apologist.  But  he  was  not 
the  sole  writer  of  Jewish  history  in  Greek  who 
sprang  from  Palestine.  Nicholas  of  Damascus,  in 
the  generation  before  him,  was  the  chronicler 
laureate  of  Herod  and  one  of  the  chief  sources 
which  Josephus  used  for  his  work.  It  is  well-nigh 
certain,  however,  that  Nicholas  was  not  a  Jew,  but 
one  of  the  Greeklings  whom  Herod  liked  to  gather 
around  him.  But  Josephus  had  a  hated  rival  in 
Justus  of  Tiberias,  who,  having  opposed  him  as 
soldier,  afterwards  as  historian  competed  for  the 
favor  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world.  Justus  wrote 
an  account  of  the  Roman  wars  and  a  chronicle  of 
the  Jewish  people  from  the  time  of  Moses  to  the 
death  of  Herod.  We  can  form  no  independent 
judgment  of  its  value,  since  not  even  fragments 
have  been  preserved.  Photius,  the  bibliographer 
of  the  ninth  century,  praises  its  conciseness  of  style. 
Josephus,  not  an  impartial  critic,  attacks  its  perver- 
sion of  the  truth.  It  speaks  somewhat  at  least  for  its 
usefulness  that  it  survived  by  the  side  of  the  An- 
tiquities and  the  Wars,  which  were  so  much  fa- 
vored of  the  Church,  till  the  time  of  Photius. 

Josephus  himself  has  gained  renown  less  from 
his  intrinsic  excellence  as  a  writer,  or  his  reliability 

241 


HELLENISM 

as  a  historian,  than  from  the  fact  that  he  was  the 
sole  authority  for  a  period  of  Jewish  history  in 
which  the  Christian  Church  was  especially  inter- 
ested. He  is  a  striking  example  of  a  conscious  and 
artificial  Hellenist  who  acquired  a  foreign  culture 
with  the  fixed  purpose  of  "  Hellenizing  his  com- 
patriots "  and  of  spreading  a  truer  knowledge  and 
a  more  favorable  idea  of  his  countrymen  among 
their  conquerors.  Reared  with  a  Jewish  education, 
and  never  master  of  Greek  speech,  he  set  himself 
in  middle  life  to  represent  Jewish  history  and 
Jewish  life  "  sub  specie  Grascitatls."  He  lived  In 
Alexandria  for  some  time  after  his  surrender  to  the 
Romans,**  and  while  resident  there  was  brought  In 
touch  with  Hellenistic-Jewish  literature.  But  he 
did  not  gain  more  than  a  varnish  of  Greek  culture; 
Greek  philosophy  seems  to  have  remained  a  sealed 
book  to  him,  and  his  works  show  little  knowledge 
of  the  profounder  Jewish  Hellenism.  Apologetics 
are  the  limit  of  his  constructive  powers.  At  the  end 
of  the  Antiquities  he  proclaims  his  Intention  to 
write  three  books  concerning  Jewish  opinions 
''  about  God  and  His  essence,  and  about  our  laws; 
why  according  to  them  certain  things  are  permitted, 
while  others  are  prohibited  ";  but  he  did  not  carry 

242 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

out  his  intention,  and  probably  we  are  not  much 
the  poorer. 

There  is  little  that  is  original  in  the  apologetics 
of  the  Antiquities,  which  are  a  Hellenized  version 
of  the  Bible  and  post-biblical  history.     The  most 
remarkable    of   his    writings    from   this   point   of 
view     are    the    two    books    commonly    entitled 
"  Against   Apion,"    but   known    to   some    of   the 
Church  fathers  as  "  To  the  Hellenes."     In  one  of 
these  he   establishes  the   antiquity  of  the   Jewish 
people;   in  the   other  he    refutes  with   force   and 
knowledge  the  calumnies  of  Apion  the  anti-Jewish 
writer  of  Alexandria,  and  expounds  the  profound 
religious  foundation,  the  broad  humanity,  and  lofty 
morals  of  the  Jewish  legislation.     He  explains  in 
an  illuminating  passage  the  superiority  of  the  Mo- 
saic law  over  other  systems."    The  Greek  philoso- 
phers, he  says,  only  disclosed  their  lofty  ideas  to  a 
few,  "  but  our  legislator  who  made  conduct  agree 
with  the  laws,  not  only  prevailed  upon  the  people 
of  his  own  time  to  accept  his  ideas,  but  imprinted 
the  faith  in  God  so  firmly  on  all  their  posterity  that 
it  never  could  be  removed.     The  reason  why  this 
legislation  was  better  directed  to  the  common  weal 
than  any  other  was,  that  Moses  did  not  make  re- 
ligion a  part  of  virtue,  but  ordained  other  virtues 


243 


HELLENISM 

to  be  part  of  religion.  I  mean,  justice,  fortitude, 
temperance,  and  a  general  concord  of  the  members 
of  the  community  with  one  another.  For  all  our 
actions  and  studies  and  words  have  a  reference  to 
piety  towards  God.  He  has  left  nothing  Indefinite 
or  undetermined.  There  are  two  ways  of  arriving 
at  any  sort  of  doctrine  and  a  moral  conduct  of  life : 
the  one  Is  by  instruction  In  words,  the  other  by 
practical  exercise.  Now  other  lawgivers  have  sep- 
arated these  ways  in  their  systems:  choosing  one, 
they  neglected  the  other.  But  our  legislator  skil- 
fully combined  the  two  methods  of  discipline, 
neither  leaving  the  practical  exercises  to  go  on 
without  theory,  nor  the  hearing  of  the  law  without 
exercise;  but  from  the  earliest  Infancy  and  from 
the  ordering  of  the  daily  diet,  he  left  nothing  of 
the  smallest  consequence  to  be  done  at  the  pleasure 
and  whim  of  the  individual."  Josephus  gives  here 
a  clear  exposition  of  the  fundamental  feature  of 
Judaism  as  a  religion  of  daily  conduct  as  well  as 
ethical  teaching,  which  seeks  to  sanctify  the  com- 
mon actions  of  life.  And  no  other  Jewish  apologist 
of  antiquity  put  It  so  well.  For  the  most  part,  how- 
ever, his  writings  leave  the  impression  rather  of  an 
Industrious  and  learned  literary  worker  than  of  an 
original  personality  like  Ben  SIra  or  Phllo,  or  the 

244 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

author  of  the  Fourth  Ezra  or  the  Wisdom  of  Solo- 
mon. He  may  be  taken,  in  fact,  as  the  type  of  the 
assimilating  Jew  who  has  lost  the  Jewish  intensity 
without  gaining  the  deeper  spirit  of  Hellenism. 
Doubtless  there  were  many  of  his  kind,  if  not  of 
equally  remarkable  talents,  and  like  the  assim- 
ilating Jews  of  other  epochs,  who  have  not  seldom 
sought  fame  in  writing  the  history  of  their  people 
or  rebutting  the  attacks  of  anti-Semites,  he  is  in 
no  way  representative  of  Jewish  thought.  He 
dropped  out  of  the  knowledge  of  the  community 
till  the  Middle  Ages,  and  his  influence  was  mainly 
external.  The  Alexandrian  Hellenists  were  ex- 
pressing their  own  culture,  which,  if  confused,  was 
sincerely  and  passionately  felt.  Josephus,  on  the 
other  hand,  merely  imitated  the  ideas  of  a  foreign 
culture,  and  wrote  to  please  in  a  medium  which 
was  so  strange  to  him  that  he  had  to  get  friends  to 
assist  him  in  making  his  composition  correct.'" 

After  the  loss  of  the  national  independence  and 
the  consequent  intensification  of  Jewish  life  in  Pal- 
estine, a  Palestinian  Jewish  Hellenist  becomes  al- 
most inconceivable;  and  literary  monuments  in 
Greek  cease  from  the  country  which  still  remains 
the  centre  of  Jewish  culture  and  Jewish  learning. 
More  remarkably,  however,  we  have  few  subse- 

245 


HELLENISM 

quent  records  of  Hellenistic  Judaism,  hitherto  so 
prolific  in  literary  work.  For  about  one  hundred 
years  the  Jews  in  different  parts  of  the  diaspora 
were  engaged  in  a  desperate  struggle  for  life  against 
heresies  within  and  enemies  without.  They  required 
all  their  energy  for  that  struggle;  the  polemic  that 
was  called  for  was  of  a  sterner  sort  than  an  Arta- 
panus  or  a  Josephus  had  provided.  Apologetics  at 
such  a  crisis  would  have  been  ridiculous :  the  times 
did  not  invite  to  philosophy  and  poetry.  The  cul- 
tured Jew  often  figures  in  the  Christian  dialogues, 
and  controversies  between  Jews  and  Christians 
must  have  been  frequent  in  the  Hellenistic  world, 
but  no  literary  record  of  them  from  the  Jewish  point 
of  view  has  survived.  Probably  the  monks  took 
care  of  that.  As  the  Hellenistic-Jewish  literature 
began  with  the  Septuagint  version,  so  it  virtually 
ceased  with  two  translations  of  the  Scriptures.. 
The  first  Greek  version  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
holy  text  by  the  Christian  sect  and  the  other  here- 
sies which  sprang  up  in  the  second  century.  For 
this  reason  alone  it  would  have  been  suspect  to  the 
Rabbis;  but  it  was,  moreover,  not  a  faithful  repro- 
duction of  the  Hebrew.  More  particularly  in  the 
version  of  the  later  books,  the  translators  had 
allowed  themselves  a  wide  license  both  of  addition 

246 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

and  modification.  Their  work  was  rather  "  Tar- 
gum  "  than  exact  translation  of  the  Hebrew,  em- 
bracing much  of  the  floating  Haggadah  which 
gathered  around  the  Bible  characters.  When  the 
mischief  caused  by  the  Hellenistic  movement  be- 
came apparent,  the  Rabbis  traced  its  origin  to  the 
Septuagint  translation;  and  since  it  was  requisite 
still  to  have  a  Greek  version  of  the  Bible  for  the 
large  numbers  of  Greek-speaking  Jews — there  were 
some  in  Palestine  itself — they  had  the  work  done 
afresh  under  their  guidance. 

The  Revised  Version  was  made  by  Aquila,  a 
proselyte  from  Pontus  and  a  pupil  of  Rabbi  Akiba, 
who  together  with  Rabbi  Eleazar  and  Rabbi 
Joshua  supervised  its  preparation.''  So  pleased 
were  the  sages  with  the  work,  that  they  applied  to  it 
the  verse:  "Thou  art  fairer  than  the  children 
of  men;  grace  is  poured  upon  thy  lips  ";''  but  a 
more  impartial  literary  judgment  has  stated  of 
its  language  that  "  it  is  such  awkward  Greek 
that  it  is  almost  good  Hebrew."  "  Aquila's  object 
was  not  to  provide  a  translation  which  should  find 
favor  with  the  Greeks,  but  to  give  an  accurate  ren- 
dering from  one  language  into  the  other,  word  for 
vv^ord,  which  was  accommodated  to  the  halakic 
tradition.     So  strict  was  his  standard  that,  regard- 

247 


HELLENISM 

less  of  Greek  syntax,  he  inserted  the  word  <^v 
(zvith)  where  the  Hebrew  particle  rs<  occurred  in 
the  text.  Here  he  was  very  clearly  following  the 
Rabbis,  who,  emphasizing  the  importance  of  every 
letter  in  the  Hebrew  text,  in  the  first  verse  of 
Genesis  laid  particular  stress  on  the  particle  as  the 
refutation  of  heretical  teaching."  The  other  trans- 
lator of  Scripture,  Theodotion,  who,  according  to 
the  Church  fathers,  was  a  Jew  of  Ephesus,  pur- 
sued the  same  aim.  But  he  was  not  so  concerned  to 
differ  from  the  Septuagint.  He  left,  however, 
many  Hebrew  words  untranslated.  His  version 
had  little  influence  on  the  Jewish  people;  and  so 
far  as  a  Greek  Bible  was  required,  i\quila,  who  had 
rendered  only  the  books  of  the  Hebrew  Canon,  took 
the  place  of  the  Septuagint  among  the  loyal  body 
of  Jews."  His  translation  is  frequently  referred 
to  in  the  Talmud  in  a  favorable  manner."  It  is  due 
to  the  abiding  influence  of  his  work  that  the  Amo- 
raim  down  to  the  third  century  expound  not  a  few 
biblical  passages  by  the  Greek  equivalent  of  the 
Hebrew  word. 

The  two  translators  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  In  the 
second  century  came  from  the  Asiatic  diaspora. 
Whether  the  Rabbis  distrusted  the  Jewish  culture 
of  Alexandria,  or  whether  Hebrew  there  was  so 

248 


THE  HELLENISTIC-JEWISH  LITERATURE 

Utterly  neglected  that  nobody  was  able  to  make  a 
new  version,  it  seems  that  from  the  second  cen- 
tury the  Alexandrian  hegemony  over  Hellenistic- 
Jewish    thought    passed    away.     The    catechetical 
school  at  the  Egyptian  capital  was  the  nursery  of 
Christian  theology;  but  the  Jewish  school  of  phi- 
losophy comes  to  an  end.    Professor  Krauss  has  un- 
earthed from  the  buried  ruins  of  neo-Platonic  phi- 
losophy a  Jewish  neo-Platonist,   Domninus,   who 
hailed  from  Egypt  in  the  fourth  century;  "  and  pos- 
sibly one  Atticus,   another  minor  philosopher  of 
the  same  period,  who  wrote  to  show  that  the  doc- 
trines of  Plato  agreed,  and  the  doctrines  of  Aris- 
totle disagreed,  with  the  teachings  of  Moses,  was 
also  an  Alexandrian  Jew."     But  these  single  in- 
stances  only   serve   to   show   the   general   literary 
barrenness  of  Alexandrian  Judaism  after  the  fall  of 
the  nation.     The  product  of  Hellenistic  culture  on 
Hebraic  soil  during  the  second  and  third  and  fourth 
centuries  must  be  looked  for  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  patristic  philosophy,  and  the  gnostic  out- 
pourings.    The  Epistles,  the  Homilies,  the  Cos- 
mogonies and  the  Plerom.a  were  the  aftermath  of 
the  Septuagint,  the   apocalypses,  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  and  Philo. 


94<) 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

It  Is  a  bitter  irony  of  history  that  the  Jewish  hero 
who  fought  to  deliver  his  people  from  the  Seleucid 
yoke  was  the  first  to  bring  them  into  relation  with  a 
power  which  in  the  end  placed  a  heavier  yoke  upon 
them.     Rome  was  a  dangerous  friend,  for  she  had 
a  way  of  making  alliance  a  prelude  to  conquest. 
She  was,  too,  a  harsh  conqueror,  intolerant  of  na- 
tional life  in  her  subjects,  and  an  adept  at  breaking 
down  the  spirit  of  a  people.     The  maxim  that  her 
greatest  poet  gave  her  w^as:    ''To  spare  the  con- 
quered and  war  down  the  proud  " ;  it  was  her  im- 
perial policy  throughout  to  crush  any  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence.   The  Jew^s  who  w^ere  first  her  allies  were 
soon  to  feel  her  iron  heel.     In  63  B.  C.  E.,  Pom- 
peius,  called  into  Judea  through  the  civil  strife  of 
two  claimants  for  the  throne,  outraged  their  feel- 
ings upon  entering  Jerusalem  by  forcing  his  way 
into  the  Holy  of  Holies.     From  that  time  forward 
they  maintained  a  passive  resistance,  which  burst 
out  at  intervals  into  open  conflict,  until  the  final 
hundred  years'  struggle  for  national  independence 

250 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

began.  The  Roman  statecraft  at  the  outset  sought 
to  break  up  the  cohesion  of  the  Jewish  nation  by 
supporting  the  Hellenized  Syrians  against  them. 
Pompeius  restored  the  Greek  cities  of  PhiHstia  and 
the  Decapolis;  and  Herod,  the  perfect  Romanizer, 
found  favor  with  his  patrons  by  encouraging  Greek 
culture  and  introducing  Greek  fashions  into  his 
kingdom.  Julius  Cassar,  indeed,  who  had  a  larger 
vision  than  the  typical  Roman  ruler,  was  not  only 
tolerant,  but  actually  careful,  of  Jewish  individu- 
ality. He  saw  to  it  that  the  Jewish  communities 
throughout  the  empire  enjoyed  their  full  privi- 
leges and  their  separateness;  but  the  harsher  anti- 
national  imperialism  reasserted  itself  am.ong  his 
successors.  From  the  beginning  of  the  common 
era  the  Palestinian  Jews  were  faced  with  a  new 
struggle,  fiercer  than  any  they  had  yet  encountered. 
They  had  to  fight  at  once  against  the  external  forces 
of  Rome  and  against  internal  enemies;  at  once  for 
national  existence,  and  for  the  preservation  of  their 
religion  and  their  culture.  Rome  did  not  come  like 
Hellas  with  the  bait  of  a  brilliant  civilization,  but 
with  an  administrative  tyranny  which  she  tried  to 
force  on  her  subject  peoples.  And  Judea  was  the 
single  country  within  her  far-flung  empire  which 
so  stubbornly  resisted  her  *'  peace." 

251 


HELLENISM 

It  IS  in  the  light  of  this  renewed  struggle  for 
existence  that  we  must  regard  the  rabbinic  attitude 
towards  Hellenistic  culture  in  the  civil  era.  We 
have  not  any  full  record  of  the  opinions  of  the 
Palestinian  schools  before  the  first  century;  and 
by  that  time  the  Jews  were  already  putting  on  their 
armor,  so  to  say,  against  the  intellectual  aggres- 
sion as  well  as  the  military  force  of  Hellenized 
Rome.  They  were  suspicious  of  anything  which 
seemed  to  facilitate  disintegration.  Yet  indica- 
tions are  not  wanting  that  at  an  earlier  period  the 
Rabbis  looked  with  favor  on  the  Hellenistic  de- 
velopment of  Judaism.  They  applied  the  verse  in 
Genesis,  *'  God  enlarge  Japhet,  and  He  shall 
dwell  In  the  tents  of  Shem,"  '  to  the  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  Into  Greek;  and  In  the  same  spirit 
it  was  said  that  the  Torah  cannot  be  adequately 
translated  except  Into  Greek.'  The  Gemara  relates 
that  an  Aramaic  Targum  was  made  from  the 
Greek,  and  it  Is  with  reference  to  Aramaic 
rather  than  Greek  versions  that  some  of  the  Tan- 
naim  expressed  their  disapproval.'  Some  have 
even  thought  that  the  Targum  Onkelos — the  Ara- 
maic paraphrase  of  the  Bible — w^as  so-called  be- 
cause based  on  the  Greek  translation  of  Aqulla. 
The  scrolls  of  the  law '  and  the  bill  of  divorce " 

252 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

might  be  written  in  Greek.  So,  too,  with  the 
lituigy,  the  Rabbis  allowed  the  Shema*,  the  grace 
after  meals,  and  the  Eighteen  Blessings  to  be 
recited  in  Greek,  and  indeed  in  any  language. 
According  to  Rabbi  Simon  ben  Gamaliel,  the  Scrip- 
tures may  be  written  in  Greek  only  (besides 
Hebrew).' 

The  only  early  attack  upon  Greek  is  the  curse 
which,  it  is  related,  was  uttered  against  the  teaching 
of  "  Greek  Wisdom  "  during  the  civil  war  between 
the  Maccabean  princes,  which  led  to  Pompeius'  in- 
vasion of  Palestine.'  The  Rabbis  were  seldom 
particular  about  chronology,  and  as  the  same  story 
Is  told  of  a  period  two  hundred  years  later,  there 
is  probably  an  anachronistic  reference,  designed  to 
point  the  lesson  that  the  Hellenistic  leanings  of  a 
section  of  the  people  led  to  the  national  catas- 
trophe. If  the  prohibition  were  made  at  the  time 
stated,  it  would  have  been  a  ''  war-emergency  " 
measure,  directed  to  the  special  need  of  the  mo- 
ment. The  record  of  the  life  and  thought  of  the 
oldest  Tannaim,  or  masters  of  the  tradition,  bears 
witness  to  the  early  tolerance  of  Pharisaic  Juda- 
ism to  the  Greek  language.  Sparse  as  is  our  knowl- 
edge of  these  sages,  it  Indicates  that  they  were  in 
regular  communication  with  the  Jews  of  the  dias- 
17  253 


HELLENISM 

pora.  At  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  before 
the  common  era,  whence  we  date  the  oldest  parts 
of  Mishnah  and  Midrash,  the  heads  of  the  San- 
hedrin  were  Simon  ben  Shetah  and  Judah  ben 
Tabbai.  The  former,  during  the  persecution  of  the 
Pharisees  by  Alexander  Jannasus,  fled  for  refuge 
to  Alexandria,  where  he  answered  a  number  of 
problems  which  were  put  to  him  by  the  community. 
Simeon  and  Judah  were  succeeded  in  the  headship 
of  the  schools  by  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion,  both, 
according  to  tradition,  proselytes,"  and  therefore  in 
all  probability  in  touch  with  Greek  thought.  We 
may  infer  their  teachings  from  the  records  of  their 
most  famous  successors,  Hillel  and  Shammai.*  If 
any  man  can  be  said  to  represent  that  which  is  best 
in  rabbinical  and  Pharisaic  tradition,  it  is  Hillel.  It 
is  therefore  the  more  striking  that  he  is  excelled  by 
no  teacher  of  his  age,  or  perhaps  of  any  age,  in  his 
recognition  of  the  universal  value  of  Jewish  law 
and  its  ethical  aspects.  His  maxims  are  suflicient 
answer  to  those  commentators  who  assert  that  the 
preaching  of  a  universal  Judaism  was  the  special 
characteristic  of  Hellenistic  Jewry,  and  due  to 
Hellenistic  influence,  and  that  the  benighted  Phari- 
sees of  Palestine  merely  added  precept  to  precept. 

254 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

The  sayings  which  have  been  preserved  in 
the  name  of  Hillel  suggest  that  he  was  directly 
or  indirectly  acquainted  with  Greek  doctrines.  It 
is  related  of  him  that  he  paid  special  care  to  the 
health  of  the  body,  saying  that  the  body  was  the 
image  of  the  divine/'  The  maxim  represents  the 
standpoint  of  Greek  ethics,  though  it  has  biblical 
support  in  the  text  that  "  God  created  man  in  His 
own  image."  Noteworthy,  also,  are  the  questions 
of  religious  philosophy  which  were  disputed  be- 
tween him  and  Shammai.  So  long  did  they  argue 
whether  heaven  was  created  before  the  earth,  that 
the  Shekinah  came  down  and  inspired  them  to  ac- 
cept the  belief  in  a  simultaneous  creation  of  heaven 
and  earth."  The  Talmud  relates  elsewhere  that 
Alexander  the  Great  asked  the  same  question  of  the 
wise  men  of  the  South; ""  and  in  Plato's  Timasus^ — 
the  Gospel  of  the  neo-Platonists  and  the  Gnostics — 
it  is  written:  "  The  earth  is  the  oldest  of  all  dei- 
ties which  have  been  created  within  the  heaven."  " 
Beneath  the  surface  of  the  dispute  lay  the  question 
whether  an  ideal  creation  preceded  the  physical, 
which  is  one  of  the  central  doctrines  of  the  philos- 
ophy of  Philo.  This  was  the  point  upon  which 
Hillel  and  Shammai  must  have  been  at  variance; 
and  while  Hillel  said  earth  was  created  before  all 

255 


HELLENISM 

(/.  e.^  there  was  no  Intermediate  step  between  God's 
will  and  the  bringing  Into  existence  of  the  world), 
Shammal  maintained  that  heaven  was  created  first 

(i.  e.^  an  ideal  plan  preceded).  A  similar  differ- 
ence of  opinion  between  HlUel  and  Shammal  Is  ex- 
pressed In  relation  to  another  controversy  upon  the 
period  of  day  at  which  God  accomplished  the  crea- 
tion. According  to  Shammal,  the  plan  of  creation 
was  made  by  night  and  the  creation  itself  took  place 
by  day;  Hlllel,  on  the  other  hand,  said  that  both 
took  place  together  In  the  day. 

It  is  further  related  that  for  three  years  the  two 
schools  discussed  "  whether  it  is  better  for  a  man 
to  be  born,  or  not  to  be  born."  "  Again  the  subject 
of  their  dispute  was  the  subject  of  a  famous  Greek 
controversy.  One  of  the  oldest  Hellenic  poets  had 
declared:  "  Best  of  all  is  It  not  to  be  born."  The 
question,  it  may  be,  arises  among  all  peoples  in  their 
reflective  stage,  and  it  is  raised  in  the  apocryphal 
book  of  Esdr-as ;  but  these  broad  philosophical  prob- 
lems were,  not  less  than  questions  of  religious  law, 
matters  of  the  deepest  interest  to  the  Pharisaic 
school  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  Lastly, 
a  rival  piece  of  allegorical  exegesis,  ascribed  to  Hil- 
lel  and  Shammal,  shows  that  they  were  In  the  habit 
of  deriving  symbolical  lessons  even  from  the  ritual- 

256 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

istic  points  of  the  Torah.  Shammal  traced  an  alle- 
gorical value  In  the  two  lambs  of  the  dally  sacri- 
fice :  that  they  pressed  down  the  sins  of  Israel,  the 
word  for  lamb  being  identical  with  the  root  for 
to  press.  HUlel,  however,  objecting  that  what  is 
pressed  down  rises  up,  and  reading  D3d  for  W23, 
derived  from  the  word  the  value  that  the  sacrifices 
washed  clean  the  sins  of  Israel." 

The  extant  Midrash,  which  may  be  regarded  as 
a  condensed  edition  of  the  oral  tradition,  pre- 
serves numerous  speculations  about  an  ideal  crea- 
tion. Instead  then  of  a  rigid  separation  between 
Alexandrian  and  Palestinian  Jewry,  or  between  the 
philosophical  and  the  legalistic  exegesis,  which  is 
postulated  by  some  critics  anxious  to  decry  the 
Pharisaic  narrowness  and  to  exalt  Hellenistic  unl- 
versallsm,  the  fact  seems  to  be  that  a  regular  com- 
munication of  thought  existed  between  the  two 
branches  of  Jewry,  and  that  speculation  about  cos- 
mology and  the  ultimate  nature  of  things  was  a 
favorite  study  among  the  Pharisees  as  well  as 
among  the  Hellenists,  albeit  more  thoroughly 
Judaized  by  the  former  body. 

The  philosophical  doctrines  of  the  Palestinian 
school  were  embodied  particularly  under  two 
heads :  the  Ma  as  eh  B  ere  shit  and  the  Ma  as  eh  Mer- 

257 


HELLENISM 

kahah;  the  first  representing  ideas  about  the  crea- 
tion or  cosmology,  the  second  ideas  about  the 
heavenly  kingdom  and  theology  and  angelology. 
A  modern  writer '"  has  endeavored  to  trace  in 
them,  respectively,  "  a  doctrine  of  ideas  "  and 
"  a  doctrine  of  emanations."  We  have  not  the 
material  from  which  to  derive  such  a  theory,  and 
it  is  hardly  consonant  with  the  general  nature  of  the 
Jewish  Haggadah  to  attribute  definite  philo- 
sophical divisions  to  the  Palestinian  Tannaim. 
The  Jewish  mind  was  essentially  imaginative  and 
intuitive  and  averse  to  exact  metaphysics  or  close 
reasoning;  the  fragments  of  philosophical  thought 
from  the  early  Midrash  contain  not  a  few  indica- 
tions of  the  influence  of  Hellenistic  speculation, 
which,  however,  is  converted  from  metaphysical 
doctrine  into  poetical  fancy,  from  dogma  to  litera-j 
ture.  While  the  imaginative  ideas  of  the  Hebrew^ 
prophet  or  poet  were  transformed  at  Alexandria 
under  Greek  influence  into  a  theology  more  or  less 
systematic,  that  theology,  when  it  passed  through 
the  mind  of  the  Palestinian  Tanna  and  Amora, 
was  again  resolved  into  a  number  of  striking  but 
unsystematic  fancies.  The  Jewish  genius,  that  is, 
when  not  moulded  by  foreign  culture,  instinctively 
avoided  casting  its  thought  about  God  and  creation 

258 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

Into  a  formal  and  definite  doctrine,  because  it 
realized  the  danger  of  dogma  for  a  pure  religious 
monotheism.  Theology  remained  a  matter  for 
Individual  study  and  pursuit,  but  not  a  part  of  the 
discipline  of  the  school  or  of  the  national  tradition. 
Mystical  and  gnostic  speculations,  however,  were 
popular  among  the  sages.  The  Talmud  and  the 
MIdrash  record  many  fancies  about  the  pre-ex- 
istence  of  certain  holy  things  created  before 
the  rest  of  the  world,  a  conception  which  was 
probably  Induced  by  acquaintance  with  the  ideal- 
istic philosophy  of  the  Hellenists.  According  to 
some,  six  things  existed  before  the  creation,  accord- 
ing to  others,  seven,  viz.:  the  Torah,  the  name 
of  the  Messiah,  Gehenna,  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
The  Throne  of  Glory,  the  Sanctuary,  and  Re- 
pentance." Again,  the  MIdrash  knows  the  doc- 
trine of  the  pre-natal  life  of  the  soul,''  that  ''  our 
birth  is  but  a  sleeping  and  forgetting,"  which  came 
perhaps  through  the  Alexandrian  Wisdom  of  Solo- 
mon from  the  Platonic  and  nco-Pythagorean  tra- 
dition. An  angel,  it  Is  said,  causes  the  soul  to  for- 
get before  birth  the  whole  Torah  in  which  it  had 
been  educated.  So,  too,  the  Book  of  Enoch  "  says 
that  every  soul  was  created  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world.    Again,  the  Talmud  contains  references 

259 


HELLENISM 

to  the  doctrine  of  the  creation  of  an  upper  and  a 
lower  world,  and  of  a  celestial  and  earthly  Adam, 
which  give  a  new  coloring  to  the  Alexandrian 
speculation  about  the  kingdom  of  Ideas  and  the 
Primal  Man.  These  doctrines  were  possibly  de- 
rived from  Babylon,  and  had  thence  entered  the 
thought  both  of  the  Jewish  and  Hellenistic  peoples. 
The  influence  of  these  doctrines  can  already  be 
traced  in  an  early  prayer  which  is  recorded  in  the 
Talmud:  "  May  it  be  Thy  will,  O  Lord,  to  make 
peace  in  the  family  above  and  the  family  below."  '" 
Several  fancies  are  derived  from  the  variation 
In  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis  In  the  spelling  of 
the  Hebrew  JVayyizer  ("and  He  formed"); 
where  the  creation  of  man  Is  spoken  of,  it  is  spelt 
with  two  Yods,  and  where  the  reference  Is  to  the 
creation  of  the  brute,  it  Is  spelt  with  one."  The  two 
Yods,  it  is  said,  point  to  the  duality  of  human  life, 
in  this  world  and  the  next  world,  or  to  the  original 
dual  formation  of  man  from  the  lower  and  the  up- 
per beings  (/".  e.^  the  angels) .  Here  we  have  a  par- 
allel with  Philo's  teaching  that  the  races  of  men  are 
twofold :  one  is  the  heavenly  man  and  the  other  the 
earthly  man.  The  first  man,  said  the  Rabbis,  was 
co-extensive  with  the  universe :  his  dust  was  gath- 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

ered  from  the  whole  world,  and  he  stretched  from 
the  earth  to  the  firmament.'' 

The  doctrine  of  creation  by  Wisdom  also  finds  a 
place  In  Palestinian  tradition.  The  Targum  Yeru- 
shalmi  gives  as  a  translation,  or  rather  as  an  inter- 
pretation, of  the  first  verse  of  Genesis:  "With 
wisdom  God  created  the  world,"  and  it  frequently 
ascribes  God's  action  to  the  Memra  or  Word.  The 
Midrash  enumerates  as  the  seven  Middot,  or  at- 
tributes of  God,  which  carry  out  His  will  and,  as 
it  were,  form  divine  powers :  Wisdom,  Righteous- 
ness, Justice,  Kindness,  Pity,  Truth,  Peace;  and 
Rab,  a  famous  Babylonian  teacher,  spoke  of  ten 
Middot  by  which  God  achieved  the  creation. 
When  Philo  interprets  the  seven  cities  of  refuge  as 
the  seven  various  stages  in  the  knowledge  of  God, 
the  upward  progress  of  man  to  the  complete  com- 
munion with  the  deity  through  apprehension  of 
His  attributes,  it  would  seem  that  he  is  developing 
to  a  new  value  a  poetical  tradition  of  his  people. 
But  the  central  figure  of  Palestinian  idealism  is  not 
the  Primal  Man  or  the  Wisdom,  or  the  Memra, 
or  the  attributes,  but  the  Torah  Itself,  which  is 
already  the  subject  of  a  psalm  In  the  book  of  Prov- 
erbs. Many  are  the  fancies  in  which  its  divine 
nature  Is  expressed — as  many  as  Philo's  Images  of 

261 


HELLENISM 

the  Logos.  The  Torah  is  God's  counsellor  and 
agent,  His  plan  in  the  creation,  His  desirable  in- 
strument by  which  the  world  was  created.  "  God 
looked  on  the  Torah  and  then  created  the  world."  " 
Another  interpretation  of  the  first  words  of  Genesis 
makes  the  Torah  declare:  "  By  me,  the  beginning 
(n^B^Nn  ^3),  God  created  Heaven  and  Earth."" 
The  verse  in  Proverbs  (8.  30),  "  Then  I  was  by 
Him,  as  a  master-workman  (proj<)  ;  and  I  was 
daily  all  delight,  playing  always  before  Him,"  was 
applied  to  the  Torah's  part  in  the  creation.  The 
sages  explained  the  word  ]iidx  variously :  some  held 
it  equivalent  to  :unD,  schoolmaster  (Greek  vratSa- 
•ya)yo<? )  ;  Others  to  a  workman;  and  others  under- 
stood it  as  hidden  away  or  covered.  The  latter 
interpretation  may  reflect  Egyptian  influence,  for 
the  name  of  the  great  Egyptian  deity  Amon 
meant  "hidden."  Like  the  Wisdom  or  the  Logos  in 
Alexandrian  literature,  or  the  Messiah  in  the 
apocalypses,  the  Torah  is  conceived  as  a  divine 
power  stored  with  God  before  the  creation.  Ben 
Sira  ''  already  has  this  fancy  when,  identifying  the 
Law  with  Wisdom,  he  says  God  created  her  and 
saw  her,  and  poured  her  out  on  all  His  works.  The 
doctrines  of  Greek  idealism  were  thus  adapted  in 
Palestine  by  the  sages  to  glorify  the  divine  Law, 

262 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  sages  were  in- 
fluenced by  Hellenistic  literature,  which  is  shov/n 
by  the  mere  fact  that  in  many  of  the  cosmological 
and  even  legal  passages  of  the  Midrash  Greek 
words  are  found  in  abundance;  but  it  is  incorrect 
to  give  the  name  of  philosophy  to  their  fancies, 
and  the  Greek  thoughts,  when  moulded  afresh  in 
the  Hebrew  mind,  were  expressed  in  terms  of  relig- 
ious poetry. 

The  secret  teachings  embodied  in  the  Maaseh 
Merkahah  had,  as  their  special  feature,  a  theo- 
sophical  gnosis  such  as  appears  in  a  cruder  form  in 
the  apocalypses  and  testaments,  and  in  its  finer  de- 
velopment in  the  esoteric  writings  of  Philo.''  These 
ideas  were  part  of  the  common  thought  of  the  time, 
and  were  especially  popular  at  Alexandria.  They 
reached  the  height  of  their  favor  in  Palestine 
during  the  first  century,  when  the  trials  and  mis- 
eries of  the  nation  induced  men  to  seek  hope  and 
consolation  in  the  inner  religion  and  secret  teach- 
ings. Rabbi  Johanan  ben  Zaccal,  who,  after  the 
destruction  of  the  temple,  held  the  Jewish  people 
together  at  the  crisis  by  means  of  his  school — the 
famous  vineyard  of  Yabneh — was,  according  to 
the  Midrash,  a  devotee  of  such  speculations.  Many 
stories  illustrate  his  fondness  for  them;  and  most 

263 


HELLENISM 

of  his  disciples,  who  were  the  Tannalm  of  the  next 
generation  and  played  a  great  part  in  the  organi- 
zation of  Jewry  In  exile,  Imbibed  It  from  him.  That 
he  acquired  the  love  of  gnostic  speculation  from  a 
knowledge  of  Hellenistic  literature  is  made  the 
more  probable  by  another  characteristic  reported 
of  his  teaching.  He  was  a  master  of  the  form  of 
exegesis  known  as  non  or  inn  pD ,  which  was  culti- 
vated by  a  special  school.''  The  word  means,  ac- 
cording to  some  scholars,  "  a  string  of  pearls," 
and  according  to  others,  "  the  essential  ";  but,  be 
this  as  It  may,  the  school  of  Interpreters  were  those 
who,  like  the  Dorshe  Reshumot,  "  the  searchers  of 
symbols,"  "  looked  for  a  deeper  meaning  under- 
lying the  letter  of  the  law,  and  allegorized  the  com- 
mandments. Few  of  their  interpretations  have 
been  preserved,  but  It  Is  striking  that  those  we  have 
correspond  with  suggestions  which  occur  In  Phllo.''. 
Thus  the  command  "  And  his  master  shall  bore  his 
ear,  "  '"  referring  to  the  treatment  of  the  slave  who 
would  not  accept  his  proffered  freedom  in  the  year 
of  release,  was  Interpreted  by  R.  Johanan  accord- 
ing to  the  method  of  Homer  as  follows: ''  "  Why 
has  the  ear  been  distinguished  from  all  other  or- 
gans of  the  body  to  be  bored?  The  Holy  One 
said:  The  ear  that  heard  my  voice  on  Sinai  crying: 

264 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

For  unto  Me  the  children  of  Israel  are  servants — '' 
and  not  servants  to  other  servants — shall  be  bored 
through,  when  this  man  takes  a  master  for  him- 
self." The  true  significance  of  the  law,  which  tal- 
lies with  Philo's  interpretation.  Is  to  impress  on  the 
slave  the  lesson  of  freedom.''  The  talmudic  pas- 
sage goes  on  to  say  that  Rabbi  Simon  the  son  of 
Rabbi  Judah  the  Prince  interpreted  the  following 
words:  "  His  master  shall  bring  him  to  the  door- 
post," in  similar  fashion.  The  door  and  the  door- 
post were  chosen  because  they  were  the  witnesses 
of  the  divine  redemption  of  Israel  In  Egypt,  when 
God  passed  over  the  lintel  and  the  two  side-posts. 
The  Tosefta  '"  quotes  five  other  sayings  of  Rabbi 
Johanan  ben  Zaccal  In  the  same  method,  of  which 
the  most  striking  is  the  homily  on  the  law :  "  An 
altar  of  stones  shalt  thou  build;  thou  shalt  lift  up 
no  Iron  tool  upon  them."  "  The  law  forbids  the 
use  of  iron  because  the  sword  is  made  of  iron,  and 
the  sword  Is  the  symbol  of  punishment  and  revenge, 
while  the  altar  Is  a  symbol  of  forgiveness  and  recon- 
ciliation. Stones  cannot  hear,  nor  see,  nor  speak; 
yet  because  they  bring  about  conciliation  between 
the  people  of  Israel  and  their  Father  In  Heaven, 
the  law  forbids  us  to  lift  an  Iron  tool  upon  them. 
These    passages   bespeak   the   preacher's   homily; 

265 


HELLENISM 

and  the  allegorizers  of  Palestine  equally  with  the 
allegorizers  of  Alexandria  may  have  developed 
their  ideas  in  sermons  for  the  synagogue.  The 
correspondence  with  the  Hellenistic  school  is  strik- 
ing not  only  in  their  method,  but  in  their  detailed 
interpretation  of  the  few  biblical  verses  of  which 
the  Mid-rash  has  preserved  the  record.  The  Dor- 
she  Reshumot  looked  for  symbols  in  the  narrative 
but  not  in  the  legal  parts  of  the  Torah;  but  the 
Darshe  Hamiirot,  following  the  Alexandrian 
habit,  applied  allegory  equally  to  the  Law. 

At  the  crisis  of  the  struggle,  in  the  second  cen- 
tury, between  Judaism  and  the  Hellenistic  syn- 
cretism, the  leaders  of  the  Palestinian  schools  de- 
tected the  danger  of  this  allegorical  development, 
as  well  as  of  other  importations  from  Hellenized 
Judaism.  The  Mishnah  prohibits  the  moralizing 
method  in  reference  to  the  command  against  tak- 
ing the  mother  with  its  young  from  a  nest.''  By 
laying  stress  on  the  moral  idea  which  the  law  was 
alleged  to  symbolize,  as  against  the  positive  pre- 
script, the  allcgorizer  tended  to  whittle  away  the 
observance,  or  to  provide  an  excuse  for  its  neglect. 

The  New  Testament  proves  that  the  method 
could  be,  and  was  in  fact,  applied,  on  the  one  hand, 
to  abolish  the  fundamental  practices  of  Jewish  life, 

266 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

circumcision,  the  Sabbath,  the  dietary  laws,  and, 
on  the  other,  to  undermine  the  binding  force  of  the 
Torah  altogether.  Several  passages  in  the  Pauline 
Epistles  mark  this  extreme  but  logical  develop- 
ment of  the  antinomian  tendency.  Thus  Paul, 
allegorizing  the  story  of  Abraham  and  Hagar,- 
says:  "  For  it  Is  written  that  Abraham  had  two 
sons,  the  one  by  a  bondmaid,  the  other  by  a  free- 
woman.  But  he  who  was  of  the  bondwoman  was 
born  after  the  flesh,  but  he  of  the  free-woman  was 
by  promise.  Which  things  are  an  allegory;  for 
there  are  the  two  covenants,  the  one  from  the 
mount  Sinai  which  gendereth  to  bondage  which  is 
Hagar.  For  this  Hagar  is  mount  Sinai  in  Arabia, 
and  answereth  to  Jerusalem  which  now  is,  and  is  in 
bondage  with  her  children.  But  Jerusalem  which 
Is  above  Is  free,  which  is  the  mother  of  us  all."  " 
In  the  same  spirit  again  he  declared :  "  For  he  is  not 
a  Jew  that  is  one  outwardly,  neither  is  that  circum- 
cision which  is  outward  in  the  flesh.  But  he  is  a 
Jew  which  Is  one  Inwardly;  and  circumcision  is  of 
the  heart,  In  the  spirit  and  not  In  the  letter,  whose 
praise  is  not  of  men  but  of  God."  ''  The  observance 
of  the  law  was  not  so  much  an  inferior  way  for  the 
extreme  antinomian  as  a  stumbling-block  in  the 
right  way.    "  For  as  many  as  are  of  the  works  of 

267 


HELLENISM 

the  Law  are  under  the  curse  "  ;  and  again :  "  Christ 
hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  Law."  " 
It  remained  only  for  Barnabas  and  Marcion,  the 
Gnostics,  to  take  the  further  step,  and  deduce  from 
allegorical  interpretation  that  the  Jewish  God  was 
the  power  of  evil  against  which  Christ,  the  good 
power,  had  to  struggle,  and  that  the  observance  of 
the  Law  is  the  seduction  of  the  devil; ''  or  that  the 
Jewish  worship,  exacted  by  the  ceremonial  Law,  ex- 
hibited the  peculiar  depravity  and  iniquity  of  the 
people/'  The  rejection  of  the  Law  naturally  ap- 
pealed to  the  Greeks  to  whom  the  Christians 
preached,  and  within  a  century  became  the  basis  of 
a  cleavage  in  the  Christian  sect,  so  that  Clement 
could  write:  "  If  the  Gentile  carries  out  the  Law, 
he  is  a  Jew;  if  he  neglects  it,  he  is  a  Greek  (Chris- 
tian)."" 

A  radical  discrepancy  existed  between  the  alle- 
gorizing habit,  when  applied  to  the  Torah,  and  the 
spirit  of  Judaism.  For  Judaism  essentially  holds 
its  members  together  by  law  and  observance.  It 
allows  freedom  of  speculation  in  the  region  of 
ideas  and  large  freedom  of  doctrine;  its  firm  an- 
chorage is  in  a  fixed  way  of  life,  and  to  that  an- 
chorage it  must  hold  if  it  is  not  to  be  shattered. 
Warned  by  the  spread  of  heresies  in  the  second 

268 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

century,  the  Rabbis  detected  in  the  outlook  of 
the  allegorical  interpreters  a  destructive  and  dis- 
integrating force.  Blasphemous  interpretations  " 
called  into  question  the  sacredness  of  Scripture. 
Just  as  in  art  symbolism  is  a  good  servant  but  a 
bad  master,  so  in  religion:  for.  In  either  case, 
the  symbolical  habit  tends  to  run  to  excess  and 
sweep  away  sane  thought.  The  Palestinian  Rab- 
bis therefore  cut  out  of  the  tradition  these  Inter- 
pretations of  the  Torah.  The  works  of  the 
prophets  and  "  the  Writings,"  such  as  the  Song 
of  Songs,  which  were  part  of  the  traditional  lore 
of  the  nation,  might  be  treated  as  allegories;  but 
the  Torah  itself,  the  divine  revelation  In  a  special 
sense  and  the  national  way  of  life,  must  not  be 
made  the  text  for  humanitarian  homilies  and  mys- 
tical reflections,  lest  It  should  be  degraded  to  the 
mere  pretext  for  them,  and  cease  to  be  a  law.  Ac- 
cording to  the  thirty-two  canons  of  exegesis  drawn 
up  by  R.  Ellezer  ben  R.  Jose  of  Galilee,  they  al- 
lowed allegorical  exegesis  to  be  applied  to  the 
Torah  In  the  case  of  three  verses  only,  where  the 
literal  meaning  had  been  definitely  supplanted  in 
practice.  The  menace  was  felt  the  more  In  Pales- 
tine, because  there  heresy  made  greater  strides  than 
in  Babylon,  and  the  Jewish  teachers  were  engaged 

1 8  269 


HELLENISM 

in  frequent  polemics  with  Hebrew  and  Gentile 
Christians  and  Gnostics,  who  regularly  appealed  to 
allegorical  interpretations  in  arguing  the  su- 
periority of  their  beliefs.  Clement  of  Alexandria 
and  Origen,  the  two  founders  of  Church  philoso- 
phy, not  only  summon  the  method  in  general  to  the 
support  of  Christian  theology,  but  use  the  particu- 
lar interpretations  of  Philo  as  weapons  against  the 
religion  which  he  was  endeavoring  by  these  means 
to  propagate  among  the  Gentiles.  An  extraor- 
dinary national-religious  instinct  prompted  the 
Rabbis  to  discard  part  of  the  heritage  of  even  the 
most  revered  teachers  of  a  former  generation,  be- 
cause it  threatened  the  centre  of  gravity  of  Juda- 
ism. Johanan  ben  Zaccai  was  dear  to  them,  but 
dearer  still  was  the  preservation  of  Judaism  in  its 
integrity. 

The  speculation  into  the  secrets  of  the  Torah, 
which  contained  many  foreign  elements,  was  also 
discouraged.  Johanan  ben  Zaccai,  though  he  was 
famous  as  a  master  of  mystical  doctrine  and  spoke 
of  it  as  "  the  great  subject,"  uttered  the  warning 
against  undue  reflection  upon  the  mysteries  of  the 
universe.  When  questioned  on  such  things  by  his 
pupil  R.  Eliezer  ben  Hyrcanus,  who  had  mystical 
leanings,  he  replied:*"    "What  answer  gave  the 

270 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

Bat-Kol  (the  heavenly  voice)   to  that  wicked  one 
who  said :    '  I  will  ascend  above  the  heights  of  the 
clouds;  I  will  be  like  the  Most  High.'  "?"    And 
R.  Eliezer  in  turn  repeated  the  warning  against 
speculation,  saying:  "  Keep  it  far  from  thy  house." 
Other  followers  of  Rabbi  Johanan,  nevertheless, 
did  not  succeed  in  observing  the  mean  he  laid  down. 
The  Gnostic  crisis,  if  we  may  so  call  the  struggle 
between  Pharisaic  or  Catholic  Judaism   and  the 
mystical  ideas  professed  by  some  of  the  foremost 
teachers,  reached  its  turning-point  about  the  middle 
of  the  second  century.    Judaism  was  beset  by  dan- 
gers within  and  without.     The  desperate  attempt 
to  recover  national  independence  in  the  reign  of 
Trajan  was  put  down  with  ruthless  severity;  the 
Christian  heresy  was  rapidly  spreading  among  the 
communities  of  the  diaspora;  it  was  marking  it- 
self off  more  and  more  clearly  from  the  Jewish 
people,   and  taking  up   a   hostile   attitude   to   the 
Torah  and  the  national  hope.     Syrian  and  Persian 
religious  cults  with  their  fantastic  theosophies  were 
seizing  hold  of  the  Graeco-Roman  empire.     The 
devotees  of  Gnosticism,  who  hitherto  had  indulged 
their  ideas  in  esoteric  circles,  were  openly  abandon- 
ing the  law,  spreading  their  heresy,  and  exhibiting 
separatist  tendencies.     Lastly,  some  of  the  most 

271 


HELLENISM 

distinguished  Rabbis  of  the  schools  were  so  carried 
away  by  the  attraction  of  the  secret  wisdom,  that 
they  introduced  strange  notions  into  Jewish  mono- 
theism, and  modified  the  Jewish  Idea  of  creation  on 
the  lines  of  Hellenistic  cosmogony. 

The  Mishnah  describes  the  dangerous  trend  of 
the  time  in  the  form  of  a  characteristic  allegory: 
"  Ben  Zoma,  Akiba,  Ben  Azzai,  and  EHsha  ben 
Abuyah  entered  Paradise  together.  Ben  Zoma 
looked  and  became  demented;  to  him  they  applied 
the  verse:  '  Hast  thou  found  honey?  eat  so  much 
as  is  sufficient  for  thee,  lest  thou  be  filled  therewith, 
and  vomit  it.' '"  Ben  Azzai  looked  and  perished ;  to 
him  they  applied  the  verse :  '  Precious  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  His  saints.'  "  Ben 
Abuyah  plucked  up  the  plants;  of  him  they  said: 
*  Suffer  not  thy  mouth  to  bring  thy  flesh  into  guilt.'  *' 
Akiba  alone  passed  through  scatheless;  of  him  they 
said:''  'Draw  me,  we  will  run  after  thee.'"'' 
Paradise  (onns)  is  a  name  given  by  the  sages  to 
theosophical  speculation  and  secret  wisdom;  and 
the  story  has  reference  to  the  mystical  movement 
of  the  period.  Three  of  the  four  sages  who  in- 
dulged in  it  fell  a  victim  to  its  blandishments.  Ben 
Zoma,  though  celebrated  for  his  erudition  in  the 
Halakah,  was  devoted  to  cosmological  speculation. 

272 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

He  reported  to  R.  Joshua  the  result  of  his  medita- 
tion upon  the  creation  in  these  words:    "  I  looked 
between  the  upper  and  the  lower  waters,  and  I  saw 
that   between    both    there    is   only    three    fingers' 
breadth."  "    From  this  it  may  be  inferred,  perhaps, 
that  he  held  that  the  world  was  not  created  ex 
nihilo,  but  that  water  was  the  primitive  element; 
which  had  been  the  starting-point  of  Greek  philos- 
ophy.    R.  Judah  ben  Pazzi,  in  the  next  generation, 
declared  hkewise  that  the  world  was   originally 
water  in  water:    the  water  became  snow,  and  the 
snow  became  earth."     Akiba,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  recorded  to  have  uttered  the  warning  on  enter- 
ing Paradise  not  to  say:  "  Water,  water,"  ""  i.  e., 
not  to  accept  the  Greek  theory  of  a  primeval  stuff. 
R.  Joshua  said  of  Ben  Zoma,  in  relation  to  his 
mystic  speculation:  "  He  is  still  '  outside.'  "  "  The 
spoken  as  well  as  the  written  word  which  fostered 
gnostic  leanings  was  external  to  the  tradition.     He 
was    termed    the    last    of    the    Darshanim     (the 
preachers)  ;  and  Ben  Azzai,  famous  for  his  piety 
as  Ben  Zoma  for  his  scholarship,  was  termed  simi- 
larly the  last  of  the  Shakdanim    (i.   e.,   diligent 
expounders).     A  mystical  interpretation  concern- 
ing the  revelation,  that  God's  voice  took  the  form  of 
the  angel  Metatron,  is  ascribed  both  to  him  and 

273 


HELLENISM 

Ben  Zoma.  He  was  also  an  ascetic,  holding  that 
the  flesh  was  an  impure  vessel  with  which  the  divine 
element  in  man  could  not  be  associated.  Possibly 
the  statement  of  the  Midrash  that  he  died  prema- 
turely from  his  excessive  devotion  to  mystical  specu- 
lation has  reference  to  his  extreme  asceticism. 

The  tragedy  of  Ben  Abuyah  was  graver.  He  was 
the  Jewish  Faust,  the  type  of  the  scholar  lost  by  his 
eagerness  for  knowledge.  A  maxim,  prophetic  of 
his  fate,  is  ascribed  to  him:  "  Knowledge  without 
observance  Is  like  a  horse  without  a  bit,  which 
throws  its  rider."  "  He  became  a  definite  apostate, 
and  his  name  was  not  even  uttered  by  the  Rabbis, 
who  referred  to  him  as  Aher  ("  the  other"),  to 
mark  his  exclusion  from  the  congregation  of  Israel. 
The  exact  form  of  his  heresy  is  not  recorded,  but  it 
seems  to  have  extended  over  doctrine  and  practice. 
It  is  related  that  Greek  songs  were  continually  in 
his  mouth,  and  heretical  books  dropped  from  his 
lap  in  the  schools;  and  that  when  he  entered  Para- 
dise, he  saw  Metatron  by  the  throne  of  God  and 
exclaimed:  *' There  are  two  divine  powers."'' 
Metatron  is  the  supreme  angel  who  occurs  fre- 
quently in  the  talmudic  and  later  apocalyptic  litera- 
ture; some  explain  the  word  as  the  Hebraized  form 
of  /i€Ta  dpovov  {by  the  throne)  ;  others  as  the  He- 

274. 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

braized  form  of  the  Latin  "  Metator  "  (divider), 
and  suggest  a  connection  with  the  dividing  Logos 
of  Philo,  or  the  Horus  of  Egyptian  theurgy.  Any- 
how, under  the  influence  of  Hellenistic  and  Mani- 
chean  culture,  Ben  Abuyah  seems  to  have  adopted  a 
form  of  dualistic  theology^  in  place  of  the  pure 
Hebrew  monotheism.  Of  his  apostasy  in  regard  to 
Jewish  practice,  the  Talmud  relates  that  he  rode  on 
the  Sabbath,  and  plucked  fruit  on  the  Day  of  Atone- 
ment." 

It  is  clear  from  passages  in  the  Talmud,  and 
is  confirmed  by  others  in  the  Midrash,  that  Akiba 
himself  had  theosophical  leanings.  He  declared 
that  a  throne  is  set  for  the  Messiah  by  God — a  doc- 
trine which  is  popular  in  the  apocalytic  literature — ; 
and  Jose  of  Galilee,  hearing  this,  cried  out  against 
him :  "  How  long  wilt  thou  profane  the  Shekinah ! '' 
(f.  e.,  the  Glory  of  God)."  The  great  systema- 
tizer  of  the  law  of  conduct  had  a  philosophical 
mind.  The  saying  in  Pirke  Abot  attributed  to  him 
deals  with  the  metaphysical  problem  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  will.  "  All  is  foreseen,  yet  freedom 
of  the  will  is  given."  "  He  regarded  the  Song  of 
Songs  as  a  complete  allegory,  and  the  profoundest 
book  of  Scripture;'"  and  according  to  the  Chris- 
tian scholar  Origen,  his  mystical  exegesis  was  sub- 

275 


HELLENISM 

sequently  forbidden  in  the  schools  to  those  who 
were  not  of  mature  years.""  In  virtue  of  his  fame 
as  a  master  of  the  mysteries  of  the  Law,  several  of 
the  earlier  kabballstic  works  which  date  from  the 
eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  the  Sefer  Yezirah  and 
a  cosmogonlcal  Alphabet,  were  ascribed  to  him. 

Pre-eminence  at  once  in  secret  wisdom  and  in 
halakic  teaching  marked  a  contemporary  of  Akiba, 
R.  Ishmael.  He  it  was  who  drew  up  the  famous 
thirteen  rules  of  halakic  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture; and  from  him  are  derived  a  large  part  of  the 
halakic  MIdrash  to  Leviticus  and  to  Deuteronomy, 
the  Mekilta  and  SIfre.  But  at  the  same  time  he 
was  renowned  as  a  master  of  the  Kabbalah.  Later 
tradition  ascribed  to  him  the  theosophical  He- 
kaht  ("Halls  of  Heaven").  R.  Hal  Gaon  (died 
1038)  quotes  both  a  greater  and  a  smaller  Hek- 
alot;  and  the  books  that  have  been  preserved  deal 
with  the  ordering  of  the  heavens  and  the  heavenly 
hosts,  the  Messiah,  the  description  of  the  throne 
and  the  celestial  temple,  and  theories  of  the  cos- 
mogony. The  attribution  of  these  particular  doc- 
trines to  Ishmael  may  be  spurious,  but  It  is  sugges- 
tive that  tradition  pointed  to  the  two  most  dis- 
tinguished jurists  among  the  Tannaim  as  masters 

276 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

of  the  secret  lore.     In  the  golden  age  of  rabbinic 
vrlsdom  the  mystic  and  the  legalist  were  combined. 
Nevertheless,  the  outstanding  greatness  of  Akiba 
was  not  his  mystical  speculation  but  his  purification 
of  Judaism.     Tradition  says  that  he  was  sprung 
from  non-Jewish  parents,  but  he  inherited  from  his 
master  Joshua  ben  Hananiah  a  profound  concep- 
tion of  Judaism  and  an  instinct  for  what  was  false 
to  its  teaching,  which  made  him  at  the  crisis  of  its 
fate  the  great  bulwark  of  its  integrity.    Joshua  ben 
Hananiah,  who  flourished  in  the  preceding  genera- 
tion, appears  in  midrashic  legend  as  the  brilliant 
champion  of  Jewish  wisdom   against  Hellenism; 
and  he  began  that  spiritual  fight  against  Hellenistic 
contamination  of  Judaism  in  which  Akiba  was  the 
protagonist.    The  latter  is  described  paradoxically 
as  Schohsticos,  the  Greek  word  for  scholar^  being 
used  in  the  sense  of  champion  of  the  Law."'    The 
Midrash  Ekah  contains  a  collection  of  tales  illus- 
trating how  Jewish  Hokniah  prevailed  over  the 
Greekdialectics.  Elsewhere  Joshua's  dialogues  with 
Hadrian  about  the  nature  of  God  and  of  his  victory 
over  the   philosophers  of  Athens  are  reported." 
The  Jews  of  Alexandria  put  to  him  twelve  ques- 
tions which  he  brilliantly  answered :  three  on  prac- 
tical observances,  three  on  Haggadah,  three  on 

277 


HELLENISM 

Derek  Erez  (or  worldly  wisdom),  and  three  prob- 
lems." These  stones  typify  the  conscious  antago- 
nism and  struggle  which  were  renewed  between 
Hellenism  and  Hebraism  after  the  loss  of  national 
independence. 

The  circumstances  of  Akiba's  life  and  times  were 
such  as  to  reinforce  the  spirit  which  he  inherited 
from  his  master,  and  to  deepen  the  recognition  of 
that  antagonism.  He  took,  as  is  well  known,  a 
leading  part  in  the  rising  under  Bar  Cochba  against 
Hadrian,  when  the  Jews  made  a  desperate  attempt 
to  recover  their  independence;  and  he  was  one  of 
the  martyrs  in  the  campaign  of  slaughter  which 
followed  it.  The  agony  of  Israel  In  this  conflict 
may  be  gathered  not  only  from  the  Talmud  and 
the  Midrash  Ekah  (which  are  full  of  harrowing 
tales  of  the  war),  but  from  the  reports  of  the 
Church  chronicler  Eusebius,  and  the  pagan  his- 
torian Dio  Cassius.*'  At  first  the  Jews  prevailed 
over  the  Greeks,  both  in  the  diaspora  and  In  Pales- 
tine, and,  if  the  accounts  are  true,  killed  tens  of 
thousands  of  their  foes.  But  the  whole  strength 
of  the  Roman  empire  was  brought  against  them. 
Severus  was  summoned  from  Britain,  and  after 
three  years  of  heroic  resistance  the  revolt  collapsed. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  were  massacred 

278 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

in  Cyrene,  Egypt,  Palestine,  and  Mesopotamia: 
600,000  are  said  to  have  perished  at  Palestine 
alone ;  some  provinces  lost  the  whole  of  their  Jew- 
ish population,  and  the  attempt  was  made  to  ex- 
terminate a  people  who  could  not  be  subjugated. 
The  plague  within  was  as  terrible  as  the  sword 
without.  The  decay  of  national  life,  the  atrophy 
of  human  reason,  and  the  incursion  into  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world  of  "  Orientalism  "  produced  such  a 
welter  of  superstitions  and  heresies  as  has  never 
been  before  or  since.  All  creeds  were  in  the  melt- 
ing-pot; the  one  national-religious  system  that  sur- 
vived was  endangered  for  a  time  by  the  centrifugal 
tendency.  Israel  did  not  go  into  exile,  it  was  said, 
till  twenty-four  orders  of  heretics  were  formed." 
The  Judeo-Christians  scoffed  in  the  synagogue, 
Gnostics  sought  to  warn  the  people  against  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Law,  syncretistic  creeds  with  their 
troops  of  angels  and  mediating  powers  offered  to 
a  world  that  was  fast  losing  its  reason  and  its  hope 
a  seductive  consolation  in  misery.  The  peril  was, 
in  truth,  graver  than  that  which  threatened  Ju- 
daism three  centuries  before  in  the  time  of  the  Mac- 
cabees. Against  compulsion  to  Idolatry  It  was  easy 
to  rally  the  forces  of  the  Jewish  nation,  but  the 
sages  of  the  second  century  had  to  fight  with  spirit- 

279 


HELLENISM 

ual  weapons  against  the  invitation  to  a  universal 
spiritualism  which  was  leading  some  of  the  best 
minds  away  from  the  Jewish  teaching  of  God. 

Akiba  was  the  leader  of  the  Puritan  movement. 
Paul  had  travelled  through  the  diaspora  to  carry 
his  mission  to  the  Gentiles,  and  Akiba  travelled 
through  the  scattered  communities  of  Israel  to 
strengthen  them  in  their  loyalty  to  the  Law.  He 
was  at  Rome,  in  Mesopotamia,  in  Egypt,  and 
Arabia.  It  was  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  to  get 
rid  of  the  peril  of  Gnosticism,  and  the  basis  of  his 
teaching  was  "  Back  to  the  Torah,"  the  pure 
source  from  which  Judaism  had  sprung.  An  apo- 
logue told  of  him  is  characteristic."  When  the 
Jews  were  prohibited  by  the  Roman  emperor  from 
studying  their  Law.  Akiba  refused  to  abandon  his 
studies.  In  reply  to  Pappos  ben  Judah,  who  warned 
him  of  the  danger,  Akiba  told  him  the  fable  of  the 
fishes  who,  being  perturbed  in  the  water,  were  in- 
vited by  a  fox  to  come  to  land.  The  Torah  was 
Israel's  element,"  and  if  they  left  it  because  of  outer 
disturbance,  they  would  stand  in  peril  of  their  salva- 
tion. Similarly,  when  asked  by  his  nephew  whether, 
having  learnt  all  the  Torah,  he  might  now 
study  the  Greek  wisdom,  R.  Ishmael  quoted  to 
him  the  verse :    "  And  thou  shalt  meditate  therein 

280 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

day  and  night."  "  "  If,"  he  added,  "  thou  canst 
find  an  hour  which  is  neither  day  nor  night,  then 
thou  mayest  study  Greek."  '" 

For  a  time,  indeed,  Greek  books  and  Hebrew 
books  written  under  Greek  influence,  were  alto- 
gether eschewed.  The  literature  which  the  Jews 
had  composed  in  the  Hellenistic  period  was  none 
of  it  holy,  and  much  of  it  in  the  eyes  of  the  sages 
dangerous  in  tendency,  in  that  it  opened  the  way 
for  foreign  non-Jewish  influences  to  affect  the  Jew- 
ish belief  and  the  Jewish  way  of  life,  and  was 
freely  used  by  the  heretics  for  their  purposes.  The 
extreme  consequences  of  Hellenistic  allegory  and 
mystical  speculation  had  been  drawn,  and  were 
proved  to  amount  to  the  repudiation  of  Judaism. 
Hence,  to  preserve  their  heritage,  the  Rabbis  de- 
termined to  cut  out  the  impurity  root  and  branch. 
The  external  books,  that  is,  the  books  not  admitted 
by  the  Synagague  to  be  holy  or  to  be  included  in 
the  Canon,  were  prohibited  in  the  schools.  The 
sage  might  read  them  for  himself,  but  they  were 
not  for  the  study  of  the  scholars.  It  was  said,  in 
the  hyperbolical  fashion  of  the  Mishnah,  that  those 
who  read  external  books  are  excluded  from  the 
future  life.''  And  again:  "  He  who  brings  to  his 
house  any  other  than  the  twenty-four  books  of  the 

281 


HELLENISM 

Bible,  such  as  the  book  of  Ben  SIra  or  Ben  La'anah, 
brings  confusion  into  it."  "  Speculation  has  been 
unable  to  settle  what  Is  meant  by  the  book  of 
Ben  La'anah,  or  by  the  books  of  Ben  Togla  and 
Homeros,  which  are  elsewhere  classed  in  the  same 
category  of  forbidden  literature.  Homeros  may 
be  a  general  term  for  Greek  poetry;  but  it  has  been 
suggested  that  it  Is  a  transliteration  of  the  Greek 
Himeros,  and  refers  to  Greek  books  of  light  litera- 
ture." Elsewhere  the  books  of  the  Sadducees  are 
placed  together  with  Ben  SIra  among  those  which 
may  not  be  read.'* 

Though  the  books  now  included  in  the  Protes- 
tant Apocrypha  never  formed  part  of  the  He- 
brew Canon,  the  wisdom  of  Ben  SIra  was  often 
quoted  by  the  early  sages."  Some  desired  to 
withdraw  from  public  reading  (tjj)  other  books 
which  were  commonly  recognized  as  holy.  Thus 
it  is  said  that  the  scribes  intended  to  withdraw 
from  public  use  Ecclesiastes  and  Proverbs  and 
the  Song  of  Songs,'"  until  the  Great  Synagogue 
arose  and  Interpreted  them ; "  and  that  Hana- 
niah  ben  Hezeklah  prevented  Ezeklel  from  being 
withdrawn."  These  suspected  books  were  to  form 
a  class  reserved  for  the  study  of  scholars;  and  the 
name  Apocrypha  {i.  e.,  things  hidden  away)  is  per- 

282 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

haps  derived  from  the  Sefarim  Geniizim  of  the 
Jewish  sages.  The  rabbinical  term,  however,  Is 
applied  to  works  which,  with  one  exception,  were 
Included  In  the  Canon."  The  twenty-four  books 
which  were  finally  admitted  as  holy  are  the  books 
of  the  Hebrew  Bible  as  we  have  it  now,  and  are 
commonly  called  the  Hebrew  Canon.  They  cor- 
respond to  the  twenty-four  writings  which  pseudo- 
Ezra  is  told  to  reveal  to  all  the  people,  and  to 
the  twenty-two  books  which  Josephus — either 
joining  Ruth  and  Judges,  and  Jeremiah  and 
Lamentations,  or  dividing  the  historical  books 
differently — declares  to  comprise  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.'" 

The  Jewish  people  recognized  no  definite  list  of 
holy  writings  before  the  second  century.  In  the 
Hellenistic  age  the  Alexandrian  Bible  mixed  up 
indiscriminately  with  the  books  of  the  Hebrew 
Canon  writings  now  regarded  as  apocryphal,  the 
Maccabees  and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  discussion  still  raged  in  the  Pales- 
tinian schools  as  to  the  final  admission  of  certain 
books.  There  was  a  fresh  trial  and  judgment  at 
the  crisis  of  the  struggle  with  Gnosticism.  The 
Books  of  Eccleslastes  and  the  Song  of  Songs  were 
those  longest  in  suspense,   perhaps  because   they 

283 


HELLENISM 

were  suspected  of  having  their  origin  in  the  Hel- 
lenistic period,  but  in  the  main  because  of  their 
peculiar  doctrines.*'  Of  the  apocalyptic  literature 
Daniel  alone  was  included  in  the  Canon,  and  that, 
because  the  first  part  of  the  book  was  regarded  as 
historical.  The  other  books  of  the  kind,  even  those 
composed  In  Hebrew,  the  Testaments  of  the  Pa- 
triarchs, the  Assumptions  of  the  Prophets,  the 
Enoch  writings,  were  rejected,  and  dropped  out  of 
the  tradition,  but  did  not  altogether  disappear  from 
private  study.  Their  infusion  of  gnostic  ideas  and 
their  somewhat  crude  eschatology  compromised 
pure  monotheism ;  and  the  fact  that  they  were  re- 
garded with  special  favor  by  the  various  Minim 
or  sectarians,  especially  by  the  Christians,  and  were 
Interpolated  by  them  In  their  polemics,  caused  the 
Rabbis  to  look  on  them  with  suspicion.  They 
became  a  source  of  false  doctrine,  and  their  new 
service  emphasized  their  dangerous  tendency. 

A  section  of  the  MIshnah  of  Haglgah  indicates 
the  collective  rabbinical  attitude  toward  cosmo- 
loglcal  and  theological  speculation.  "  It  Is  for- 
bidden," runs  the  law,  ''  to  study  the  mystery 
of  creation,  except  alone,  and  the  mystery  of  the 
Merkabah,  not  even  alone,  unless  the  individual  Is 
able  himself  to  form  a  judgment.     He  who  busies 

284 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

himself  with  four  things,  what  is  above  and  what 
below  (the  earth),  what  before  and  what  after 
(life),  better  were  it  for  him  that  he  had  not  been 
born ;  and  better  were  it  that  he  who  has  no  thought 
for  the  glory  of  his  Maker  had  not  been  born."  " 
The  doctrines  of  the  Pleroma  and  Hell,  of  the 
pre-natal  state  and  the  last  judgment,  were  the 
peculiar  interests  of  gnostic  wisdom,  and  the  pas- 
sage is  really  a  warning  against  the  gnostic  leanings 
in  the  schools.  The  Jewish  position  was  that  the 
limits  of  human  knowledge  were  fixed;  and  It  was 
dangerous  for  the  ordinary  scholar  to  try  to  tran- 
scend them. 

Judged  from  this  standpoint,  the  apocalypses 
were  antagonistic  to  true  humility.  During  the 
first  century  of  the  Christian  era  the  power  of 
reason  universally  decayed,  so  that  philosophy 
meant  not  rational  but  mystical  speculation.  Yet 
man  will  always. want  to  peep  through  the  partition 
between  the  two  worlds,  and,  despite  the  rule  of  the 
MIshnah,  Jewish  sages  continued  to  enquire  what  is 
above  and  below,  before  and  after.  Bar  Kappara, 
a  contemporary  of  R.  Judah,  the  compiler  of  the 
MIshnah,  is  said  to  have  expounded  the  Mdaseh 
Bereshit;  and  the  secret  doctrine  remained  popular 
in  the  schools  both  of  Babylon  and  Palestine."  The 
19  285 


HELLENISM 

writers  of  apocalypses,  however,  were  concerned 
overmuch  with  such  things,  and,  therefore,  their 
influence  upon  the  people  tended  to  heresy.  It  was 
said  in  the  name  of  R.  Eleazar,  that  after  the  fall 
of  the  temple,  the  standard  of  thought  of  the  whole 
nation  was  lowered:  "The  sages  became  as 
scribes,  the  scribes  as  attendants  in  the  synagogue 
(Hazzanim)  ;  the  Hazzanim  as  students,  and  the 
students  as  the  'Am  ha-Arez,  and  the  'Am  ha-Arez 
became  feeble,  no  one  questioning,  and  no  one  in- 
vestigating. Our  help  is  in  God  in  heaven." " 
Hence  the  common  people  were  the  more  easily 
attracted  by  the  apocalyptic  appeals,  and  swelled 
the  ranks  of  the  heretics.  According  to  the  Chris- 
tian Jerome,  the  Ebionites — the  Christian  sect  of 
Jewish  origin  which  held  that  the  Mosaic  law  was 
binding  on  them — were  so  called  because  they  were 
poor  in  understanding  (d>ji>3n).  Another  early 
Christian  writer,  Tatian,  claimed  that  learning  was 
a  bar  to  true  faith. 

The  resolution  to  purify  Judaism  of  foreign  ad- 
mixture and  to  preserve  it  from  the  heretical  fever, 
which  sprang  from  foreign  influences  and  from  the 
confused  theosophy  of  the  time,  prompted  the 
prohibition  against  teaching  Greek  culture.  The 
study  of  the  Greek  language  also  was  prohibited,"' 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HFXLENISM 

but  only  during  the  crisis  of  the  struggle  against 
the  Graeco-Roman  armies.  It  was  a  measure  or- 
dained during  the  war  of  Quietus  (In  the  time  of 
Trajan)  to  prevent  informing.  At  that  period 
the  Gentiles  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  the  extir- 
pation of  the  Jewish  people,  and  the  Jews  were 
compelled  to  the  most  desperate  measures  to  pre- 
serve a  remnant.  But  when  the  pressure  was  re- 
duced, knowledge  of  the  Greek  language  became 
regular  again  among  the  Palestinian  Rabbis;  it  is 
expressly  recorded  that  even  during  the  crisis  the 
Rabbis  allowed  the  school  of  Gamaliel  II,  the  head 
of  the  Sanhedrin,  to  study  Greek."*  Gamaliel's 
son.  Rabbi  Simon,  relates  that  in  his  father's  house 
five  hundred  pupils  were  instructed  in  the  Torah 
and  five  hundred  in  Greek.  A  half-century  later 
R.  Judah  recommended  that  in  Palestine  the  people 
should  speak  either  Hebrew  or  Greek ;  and  Aquila's 
Greek  translation  of  the  Bible  was  made  under  the 
auspices  of  the  great  Tannalm.*'  Greek  as  a  lan- 
guage was  not  long  under  the  ban,  and  a  rabbinical 
saying  has  come  down:  "The  language  is  hon- 
ored the  literature  is  rejected    (nDsni  ninS  n':v  \)vfh 

During  the  three  centuries  which  had  elapsed 
since  the  Maccabean  rising,  the  degradation  of  that 

287 


HELLENISM 

culture  In  the  East  had  steadily  continued,  till  now 
it  was  a  travesty  of  the  civilization  of  Athens  and 
Ionia.  No  Hellene  could  have  recognized  in  the 
fantastic  trinities,  theosophies,  and  cosmogonies  of 
the  Gnostics  and  neo-Platonists  a  development  of 
the  philosophy  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  Baffling 
mysticism  displaced  clear  reason;  moderation  of 
thought  gave  place  to  limitless  extravagance,  the 
desire  for  scientific  truth  to  utter  distrust  of  the 
intellect  and  self-abandonment.  The  force  of 
Hellenism  spent  itself  by  the  second  century,  and 
was  then  overpowered  by  the  Oriental  reaction. 
The  gulf  between  God  and  man,  which  Hellenic 
philosophy  had  tried  to  bridge,  was  now  widened 
by  the  sublimation  of  the  Godhead  into  an  abstract 
negation,  and  by  the  depreciation  of  this  world  and 
the  life  of  the  flesh.  Instead  of  relying  on  reason 
and  contemplation,  man  yearned  for  redemption 
and  expiation  by  means  of  angels  and  demons. 
The  Rabbis  instinctively  recognized  a  canker  in  this 
medley.  Their  legal  sense,  moulded  by  a  study  of 
the  Halakah,  gave  them  an  aversion  to  Its  con- 
fusion of  Ideas;  their  religious  sense  made  them 
rise  above  its  clouded  conception  of  God.  It  was 
not  Pharisaic  narrowness  on  their  part,  but  a  clear 
intuition  of  the  essence  of  Judaism  and  of  the 

288 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

overpowering  necessity  of  preserving  its  outlook 
uncontaminated,  which  led  them  to  set  up  fences 
against  foreign  incursion.  They  were  opposed  not 
to  freedom  of  thought,  but  to  free  play  for  demor- 
alizing influences;  and  if  their  attitude  was  one- 
sided, at  the  moment  one-sidedness  was  necessary 
to  sanity. 

In  this  spirit  of  distrust  of  the  Hellenistic  move- 
ment they  said  figuratively  that  the  making  of  the 
Septuagint  translation — which  marked  the  intro- 
duction of  Hellenism  into  Jewish  life — was  com- 
parable with  the  making  of  the  golden  calf;  and 
they  appointed  a  fast-day  (the  eighth  day  of 
Tebeth)  to  mark  the  calamity/'  They  expressed 
their  feeling  of  bitterness  at  the  contamination  of 
the  Scriptures  in  the  saying  that  God  would  not  let 
Moses  write  the  oral  law  for  fear  that  it  should  be 
translated  and  appropriated  by  the  Gentiles,  as  it 
is  said:  "  I  have  written  to  him  the  great  things 
of  My  Law,  but  they  were  counted  as  a  strange 
thing."  "^  The  Mishnah  was  God's  mystery  which 
He  revealed  only  to  His  saints.''  Greek  culture, 
in  the  sense  of  philosophy  and  theology,  was  ban- 
ished from  the  schools  from  the  end  of  the  second 
century.  Exceptionally  we  find  a  teacher  who  must 
have  studied  it  for  himself  and  used  it  polemically 

289 


HELLENISM 

against  Minim  and  pagans;  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  Greek  language  was  to  continue  In  Palestine  for 
more  than  two  centuries.  Yet  the  study  of  secu- 
lar science,  and  more  especially  of  astronomy  and 
medicine  which  was  derived  from  Greek  science, 
continued  both  In  Palestine  and  Babylon;  according 
to  the  doctrine  of  R.  Eleazar  HIsma,  recorded  In 
the  Ethics  of  the  Fathers,  it  was  to  be  regarded  as 
an  after-course  of  Wisdom,"  i.  e.,  to  be  pursued 
only  after  a  complete  mastery  of  the  Torah  was 
attained. 

The  exclusion  of  Greek  thought  from  education 
corresponded  with  the  exclusion  of  Idolaters  and 
heretics  from  Jewish  society.  In  either  case  the 
motive  was  to  preserve  Judaism  in  its  integrity. 
The  rabbinical  laws  against  association  with  pa- 
gans are  set  out  In  the  tractate  Abodah  Zarah.  The 
regulations  about  what  things  may  not  be  sold  to  or 
bought  from  Gentiles  seem  excessive  In  our  day,  but 
when  it  Is  remembered  that  they  are  directed  solely 
against  pagans  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  idola- 
trous practices,  the  reason  for  the  stringency  is 
clear.  As  tor  the  desirability  of  separating  the 
Jews  from  the  pagan  society  of  the  time,  the  de- 
scription   of    Graeco-Roman    life    by    the    pagan 

290 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

satirists    Juvenal    and    Persius    provides     ample 
support. 

The  struggle  of  the  Jewish  teachers  against  the 
Minim  was  more  assiduous  than  that  against  the 
pagans.  They  were  fighting  In  the  one  case  against 
an  open  and  visible  foe ;  in  the  other  they  had  to  deal 
with  heretics  in  their  own  midst.  Both  the  meaning 
and  the  derivation  of  the  word  MIn  are  disputed. 
Some  have  held  it  to  be  a  form  of  >Kjn,  and  to 
stand  for  Manichee  or  a  follower  of  Oriental  dual- 
ism; others  say  that  it  is  connected  with  ^^okd,  and 
was  applied  to  those  who  believed  in  gnostic  creeds. 
But,  whatever  its  original  meaning,  it  was  certainly 
applied  in  the  Talmud  to  various  orders  of  here- 
tics in  general,  and  to  Judeo-Chrlstians  In  particu- 
lar. Some  kinds  of  Minut  were  known  before  the 
spread  of  Christianity.  The  embryo  of  the  later 
sects,  as  has  been  seen,  existed  in  Philo's  time."  The 
Cainltes  chose  as  their  hero  the  biblical  character 
who  was  bound  by  no  law,  and  their  doctrine  seems 
to  have  been  an  organized  religious  anarchy — a 
teaching  which  finds  Its  devotees  even  to-day.  The 
Sethltes,  who  made  Seth  their  ideal  figure,  the 
Ophites,  who  regarded  the  serpent  as  the  divine 
power,  and  the  Hypsistanae,  who  recognized  a  su- 
preme god  ruling  over  a  number  of  powers,  each 

291 


HELLENISM 

professed  certain  peculiarities  of  theology  and  cos- 
mogony, but  were  allied  with  the  Cainites  in  reject- 
ing or  neglecting  the  Law.  When  they  appear  as 
organized  and  distinct  heresies,  they  are  treated  as 
Christian-gnostic  sects;  but  it  is  likely  that  they 
derived  their  tenets  from  Jewish  Gnostics  who 
sprang  from  the  heretical  hotbed  of  Alexandria. 

The  Minim  began  to  be  prominent  in  rabbinic 
literature  from  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the 
temple,  and  the  Midrash  contains  endless  stories 
of  polemical  controversy  with  them.  The  rise  of 
Christianity,  coming  at  the  same  time  as  the  shock 
to  the  national  Hfe  inflicted  by  the  destruction  of 
the  temple,  emphasized  the  peril  of  Miniit.  The 
Gentile  Christians  under  the  influence  of  Paul  had 
early  adopted  an  extreme  antinomian  outlook,  and 
the  fourth  Gospel  and,  still  more,  the  apocryphal 
Christian  writings  are  full  of  gnostic  theories. 
Many  of  the  Judeo-Christians  at  the  same  time 
professed  to  remain  members  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity, and  faithfully  practised  its  observances. 
The  danger  of  the  infection  was  thereby  increased, 
and  to  meet  the  crisis,  the  Rabbis  took  measures  to 
excommunicate  the  heretics.  The  supplication 
against  slanderers  (D^rtySnSi)  directed  against 
Minim    was    added    to    the    Eighteen    Benedic- 

292 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

tlons/'  Warning  was  given  not  to  admit  Into  the 
schools  those  whose  Inner  Ideas  were  not  In  harmony 
with  their  outer  practice.  Their  scrolls  and  books 
were  to  be  burnt,  and  though  they  contained  God's 
names,  they  were  not  to  be  rescued  from  the  fire. 
"  Let  them  burn  with  their  Incantations  (  nnjiK  )," 
it  was  said  in  the  name  of  R.  Tarphon  and  Ishmael ; 
"  heretics  only  sow  hatred,  jealousy,  and  dissen- 
sion between  God  and  Israel."  "' 

The  Christians,  indeed,  once  the  cleavage  be- 
tween them  and  the  Catholic  body  of  Judaism  had 
asserted  itself,  rapidly  widened  the  breach.  They 
welcomed  Hellenistic  influence  and  syncretlstic  con- 
ceptions as  much  as  the  Rabbis  discountenanced 
them.  All  those  elements  of  Alexandrian  mysti- 
cism, which  had  been  fluid  in  Phllo,  became  crystal- 
lized in  the  early  patristic  teaching,  passing  from 
literature  to  dogma :  and  the  antlnomianism  which 
Phllo  had  impugned  as  involving  Chaos  In  re- 
ligion was  presented  as  a  step  towards  salvation. 
As  Judaism  became  more  thoroughly  Judalzed, 
Christianity  was  more  and  more  Hellenlzed.  As 
the  one  strengthened  the  national-religious  hold, 
the  other  expanded  Its  cosmopolitan  appeal.  The 
contrast  between  the  two  movements  Is  shown  in 
the  favor  which  the  Church  showed  to  the  store  of 

293 


HELLENISM 

apocryphal  and  apocalyptic  literature,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  exclusion  of  It  from  the  Synagogue 
and  Bet  ha-MIdrash,  on  the  other;  In  the  Greek 
rendering  of  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament,  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  abandonment  of  the  Greek 
development  of  Judaism,  on  the  other;  In  the  use 
of  the  Septuagint  by  the  Church,  and  Its  replace- 
ment by  the  translation  of  Aqulla  In  the  Synagogue. 
The  dialogue  between  Trypho  and  the  Jew, 
which  Is  ascribed  to  Justin,  though  probably  a 
spurious  work,  is  an  early  record  of  the  Christian 
polemic,  and  Illustrates  the  development  by  the 
Church  of  the  Alexandrian-Jewish  theology  as  an 
engine  of  attack  upon  monotheism.  Wisdom  is 
presented  as  an  independent  power  existing  before 
the  creation  of  the  world,  and  the  writer  attacks 
those  who  do  not  regard  it  as  separate  from  God. 
The  Gospel  ascribed  to  St.  John  shows  a  similar 
application  of  Alexandrian  theology  counter  to 
Jewish  monotheism;  and  its  opening  decisively 
marks  the  introduction  of  the  idea  of  the  Incarna- 
tion that  was  to  become  the  foundation  of  dogmatic 
Christianity:  *' In  the  beginning  was  the  word, 
and  the  word  was  with  God,  and  the  word  was  God. 
The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God  .... 
And  the  word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us, 

294 


THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

and  we  beheld  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only 
begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth." 
The  writer  of  the  book,  almost  certainly  an  Alex- 
andrian, represents  the  transition  of  Jewish-Hellen- 
istic speculation  about  God  Into  Trinitarian  mys- 
ticism. Hellenism  had  produced  a  double  off- 
spring, Christianity  and  Gnosticism:  both  repudi- 
ated the  Law,  both  compromised  Hebraic  mono- 
theism. The  Church  Itself  was  soon  like  to  be 
engulfed  in  the  witches'  cauldron  of  gnostic  fancies, 
and  engaged  in  a  life-struggle  with  hydra-headed 
heresies.  All  the  aberrations  from  the  Judaism  of 
the  diaspora  which  were  produced  by  the  mingling 
with  the  degenerate  syncretism  of  the  time  found 
their  way  into  one  or  other  of  the  opposing  camps; 
but  Palestinian  and  Babylonian  Judaism,  preserved 
in  its  integrity  by  the  Word  of  the  Law  and  by  the 
devotion  of  the  Rabbis,  confirming  the  solidarity 
of  the  people,  continued  to  hold  aloft,  though  in 
isolation,  the  Hebraic  ideal. 

Deprived  of  their  temple,  of  their  national  cen- 
tre in  Judea,  and  to  some  extent  of  their  Inde- 
pendent organization  and  their  autonomy,  and 
reduced  to  the  level  of  a  subject  population,  the  Jew- 
ish people  were  compelled  to  draw  tight  the  cords 
of  their  tent,  and  to  give  over  for  a  time  their  hopes 

295 


HELLENISM 

of  universal  expansion.  But  the  loss  of  the  exter- 
nal bonds  and  the  outward  forms  of  nationality  led 
them  to  increase  the  strength  of  the  inner  ties  and 
the  moral  and  religious  unity.  Their  more  com- 
plete dispersion  among  the  Hellenistic  peoples  in- 
duced a  firmer  hold  on  their  national  culture  and 
resistance  to  foreign  influences.  The  downfall  of 
the  sanctuary  Increased  the  power  of  the  syna- 
gogue; the  intensity  of  the  national  crisis  aroused 
the  spiritual  forces  of  the  people;  the  combined 
Invasion  of  Hellenism  and  Orientalism  was  met  by 
the  intensification  of  the  Hebraic  spirit. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  AFTERMATH 

By  the  end  of  the  second  century,  the  severity  of 
the  struggle  against  Rome  and  against  Hellenism 
had  passed.  The  Jews  settled  down  to  their  life  in 
exile,  hoping  indeed  that  a  Messiah  would  soon 
arise  to  deliver  them  from  the  foreign  yoke,  but 
no  longer  bursting  out  in  desperate  rebellion.  They 
had  won  from  their  conqueror  by  their  heroic  re- 
sistance the  privilege  of  being  a  religio  licita,  a 
recognized  denomination  possessing  a  large  mea- 
sure of  self-government;  and  partly  through  the 
central  Sanhedrin  which  was  still  established  in  Pal- 
estine, and  partly  through  the  organization  of  the 
Synagogue  in  all  parts  of  the  Roman  empire  and 
beyond,  they  strengthened  their  internal  cohesion. 
The  Jewish  communities,  if  no  longer  colonies  of 
an  independent  nation,  were  branches  of  a  distinct 
and  separate  nationality;  and  the  loss  of  a  territo- 
rial centre  was  compensated  by  the  more  complete 
ordering  of  conduct  upon  a  national  basis.  Amid 
contempt  and  persecution  they  cherished  their  lan- 

297 


HELLENISM 

guage  and  law,  their  history  and  poetry,  with  all 
their  old  pride  and  devotion. 

Largely  as  a  safeguard  against  heretical  inter- 
pretations of  the  Torah,  R.  Judah  (about  200 
C.  E.)  compiled  the  Mishnah,  which  formed  the 
authoritative  text  of  the  oral  law,  binding  on  all 
sections  of  the  people  and  supplementing  the 
Torah.  The  consolidation  of  the  Halakah  (the 
way  of  life)  strengthened  the  hold  of  the  national 
tradition.  At  the  same  time  the  fear  of  disinte- 
gration and  denationalization  led  to  the  gradual 
withdrawal  of  the  Jewish  people  into  itself,  and  to 
the  diminution  of  the  proselytizing  which  had  been 
in  the  main  the  work  of  Hellenistic  Jewry.  The 
Jews  were  to  attract  the  Gentiles  by  their  example, 
not  to  proselytize.'  The  progress  of  Christianity 
and  the  triumph  within  the  Church  of  the  antino- 
mian  and  anti-national  tendency,  pointed  the  dan^ 
gerous  side  of  the  missionary  activity  to  the  Rabbis. 
But  It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  activity  ceased; 
the  Haggadah  of  the  Tannalm  and  Amoralm  is  full 
of  beautiful  thoughts  about  proselytes,  among 
which  the  saying  of  Simon  ben  Yohal  is  typical: 
"  Of  the  pious  it  is  said  they  love  God;  but  of  the 
proselytes:  God  loves  them.  Hence  we  learn  that 
the  proselytes  are  more  excellent  than  the  pious."  ' 


THE  AFTERMATH 

Another  teacher  declared  that  the  whole  world  was 
made  for  the  sake  of  "  those  that  fear  God,"  *  and 
Rabbi  Eleazar  thought  that  God  dispersed  the 
Jews  to  aid  the  work  of  conversion.  Nevertheless, 
the  influence  on  the  Jewish  congregations  of  the 
Greek-speaking  fearers  of  God  gradually  dimin- 
ished 

Palestine  remained,  for  more  than  two  centuries 
after  the  destruction  of  the  temple,  the  chief  cen- 
tre of  the  Jewish  people,  and  the  seat  of  Jewish 
learning.  The  Sanhedrin  and  the  great  rabbinical 
schools  were  established  there,  and  it  is  mainly  of 
the  Palestinian Tannaim  and  Amoralm  that  we  have 
record  in  the  older  parts  of  Talmud  and  Midrash. 
Even  more  completely  than  while  they  enjoyed 
national  independence,  the  Jews  were  living  amid 
a  Greek-speaking  and  a  Hellenlzed  population. 
Driven  from  Jerusalem  and  Judea,  they  had  con- 
centrated in  Galilee,  which  was  largely  settled  by 
non-Jews.  Moreover,  as  the  Christian  teaching 
spread,  large  numbers  of  Christians  made  Pales- 
tine their  home.  Greek-speaking  and  Hellenlzed 
like  the  pagans,  they  were  prone  to  engage  In  po- 
lemics with  the  Jews,  and  formed  an  intellectual 
leaven  in  Jewish  life.  Especially  at  places  like 
Cassarea  and  Lydda,  which  were  Christian  bish- 

299 


HELLENISM 

oprics  and  prominent  centres  of  Christian  scholar- 
ship, Jews  were  thrown  together  with  them,  and 
engaged  in  frequent  controversy.  The  campaign 
of  Akiba  and  his  followers  against  Hellenism  and 
the  prohibition  of  the  study  of  Greek  wisdom  did 
not  involve  the  cessation  of  intercourse  between  the 
Aramaic-speaking  Jew  and  the  Greek-speaking 
Gentile.  Rather  the  reverse  was  the  case :  the 
warnings  and  prohibitions  were  called  for  by  the 
temptation  to  mingle.  Discussion  between  Rabbis 
and  Greek  philosophers  in  Palestine  is  frequently 
recorded  in  the  Talmud  and  Midrash,  and  most  of 
the  supposed  traces  of  the  influence  of  Greek  phi- 
losophy on  rabbinical  thought  occur  in  the  Hagga- 
dah  of  the  Rabbis  who  flourished  later  than  the 
second  century.  It  may  be  that  these  doctrines 
had  already  entered  into  the  current  thought  of  the 
schools,  and  were  not  derived  from  direct  contact 
with  Greek  writings;  but  it  is  also  possible,  and  in 
some  cases  probable,  that  the  Palestinian  teachers 
themselves  studied  the  Greek  wisdom.  Although, 
too,  the  Hellenistic  and  apocryphal  literature  had 
been  placed  under  the  ban,  considerable  traces  of 
the  ideas  contained  in  it  appear  in  the  Midrash,  and 
preserved  an  abiding  impression  of  the  Hellenistic- 
Jewish  movement. 

300 


THE  AFTERMATH 

The  most  striking  result  of  the  national  struggle 
was  not  the  elimination  of  Hellenic  ideas  in  Pal- 
estinian Jewry,  but  the  dwindling  of  the  importance 
of  Hellenistic  Jewry.  The  communities  of  Alex- 
andria, Cyrene,  and  Libya  never  recovered  from 
the  decimation  which  followed  the  risings  against 
Trajan  and  Hadrian.  Estranged  from  the  main 
body  of  Jews  by  their  neglect  of  Hebrew,  and  rent 
by  heresy  and  faction,  their  reduced  numbers  were 
little  by  little  won  over  to  gnostic  and  Christian 
ideas.  Marcus  Aurellus,  the  philosopher-emperor, 
spoke  contemptuously  of  the  Jewish  rabble  at  Alex- 
andria ;  and  what  had  once  been  the  most  produc- 
tive centre  of  Hellenistic-Jewish  literature  gave  not 
a  single  Jewish  record  to  the  world  after  the  second 
century.  Christian  scholarship,  on  the  other  hand, 
soon  took  up  its  chief  abode  in  Alexandria;  and 
when  the  city  again  became  celebrated  as  a  seat  of 
philosophy  and  learning,  it  was  through  the  patris- 
tic school  of  Christian  writers.  The  destruction  of 
the  temple  and  the  consequent  disappearance  of  the 
deputations,  which  had  used  to  come  up  to  Jerusa- 
lem at  the  great  festivals,  would  have  tended  to 
cut  off  the  stream  of  Influence  that  had  passed  from 
the  diaspora  to  Palestine ;  and  the  disintegration  of 
20  301 


HELLENISM 

the    Alexandrian    community    itself   widened    the 
breach. 

The  Haggadah  attributed  to  the  generation 
which  succeeded  R.  Akiba  reveals  but  little  trace  of 
foreign  thought.  The  antipathy  toward  the  Greek 
people  and  everything  Greek  was  still  too  strong, 
the  need  for  emphasizing  what  was  Jewish  still 
overpowering.  Thus  R.  Meir,  the  most  distin- 
guished disciple  of  R.  Akiba,  who  had  also  learnt 
from  the  apostate  Ben  Abuyah,  emphasizes  the  self- 
sufficiency  of  God's  chosen  people.  Israel  is  the 
metropolis  in  which  everything  is  gathered;  from 
his  midst  come  priests,  prophets,  and  writers,  as  it  is 
said :  "  Out  of  him  came  forth  the  corner-stone,  out 
of  him  the  stake."  *  That  is  to  say,  the  Jews  needed 
not  to  learn  anything  from  other  peoples :  their  cul- 
ture was  complete  in  itself.  A  similar  separatist  ten- 
dency is  shown  in  his  prohibition  to  visit  the  Greek 
theatres.  They  were  the  seats  of  the  scoffers,  and  R. 
Meir  '  applied  to  them  the  verse  of  the  Psalmist :  "  I 
hate  the  gathering  of  evil-doers,  and  will  not  sit  with 
the  wicked."  "  The  antipathy  to  the  theatre  and  cir- 
cus and  amphitheatre  is  a  commonplace  of  rabbini- 
cal literature.  Nehunyah  ben  ha-Kanah,  who  be- 
longed to  an  earlier  generation,  thanked  God  that 
his  lot  was  among  those  who  sit  in  the  synagogue 

302 


THE  AFTERMATH 

and  not  among  those  who  sit  in  the  theatre.'  The 
places  of  amusement  of  the  degenerate  and  demor- 
ahzed  populace  of  the  empire,  in  which  human  be- 
ings were  made  to  kill  each  other,  or  were  devoured 
by  wild  beasts  in  order  to  provide  a  thrill  for  specta- 
tors, typified  all  that  was  low  and  base  in  the  pagan 
civilization,  and  aroused  the  disgust  of  the  Puritan 
conscience  of  the  Jews.  To  frequent  them  was  in 
public  life  what  Minut  was  in  thought — a  denial 
of  God. 

R.  Meir,  however,  albeit  a  stern  upholder  of  the 
Jewish  spirit,  was  celebrated  for  his  mystical  specu- 
lation, and  engaged  in  intercourse  with  a  noted 
Greek  philosopher,  Oenomaus  of  Gadata,*  who 
knew  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  no  longer  a  rare  thing 
for  a  pagan  philosopher.  A  Syrian  neo-Platonist  of 
the  same  period,  Numenius  of  Apamea,  is  the  re- 
puted author  of  the  striking  saying:  "What  is 
Philo  but  Moses  speaking  in  Attic  Greek?  "  and  he 
referred  to  the  opening  chapter  of  Genesis  in  sup- 
port of  his  cosmological  doctrines.  Truth,  he  said, 
must  be  obtained  by  a  comparison  of  the  holy 
records  of  the  Jews  and  Persians  with  the  teachings 
of  the  Greek  philosophers.  So,  too,  the  unknown  au- 
thor of  the  famous  treatise  "  On  the  Sublime," 
which  is  the  most  striking  piece  of  literary  criticism 

303 


HELLENISM 

that  has  come  down  from  the  period,  quotes  from 
the  bcginnuig  of  Genesis,  and  classes  Moses  with 
Homer  as  a  master  of  style.  "  In  the  same  way 
{i.  e.,  like  Homer  at  his  best) ,"  he  writes,  "  the  leg- 
islator of  the  Jews,  no  mean  man,  wrote  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  Laws :  '  God  said.'  What?  'Let 
there  be  light,  and  there  was  light;  let  the  earth  be, 
and  the  earth  was.'  "  "  While  Jewish  teachers  were 
rejecting  the  current  syncretism,  Gentile  philoso- 
phers were  endeavoring  to  fuse  Judaism  with 
their  systems.  Tolerance  had  become  a  fetish,  and 
on  all  sides  there  was  an  outcry  against  Jewish  par- 
ticularism. Celsus,  the  famous  pagan  impugner  of 
Christianity,  complains:  "  If  the  Jews  were  content 
to  observe  their  laws,  nobody  would  reproach  them ; 
but  since  they  pride  themselves  upon  perfect  knowl- 
edge and  refuse  to  mix  with  other  men,  they  are  in 
the  wrong.  For  their  religious  ideas  are  not  pe- 
culiar to  them,  nor  is  there  any  indication  that  they 
enjoy  the  esteem  and  love  of  God  to  a  higher 
degree  than  others,  or  that  they  alone  have  the  priv- 
ilege of  receiving  messages  from  heaven."  "  The 
taunt  at  the  Jews  on  account  of  their  lowly  position 
is  a  commonplace  among  the  Christian  apologists, 
and  represents  the  current  opinion  of  the  enlight- 
ened world.     But  the  Jew  held  to  his  aloofness, 

304 


THE  AFTERMATH 

conscious  that  he  stood  for  something  truer  than 
the  dominant  easy-going  conciliation  of  everything. 

The  one  teacher  of  R.  Meir's  age  who  shows 
m  his  mystical  teaching  a  correspondence  with  Hel- 
lenistic ideas  is  R.  Judah  ben  Ilai.  To  him  the 
saying  is  ascribed:  "God  looked  at  the  Torah 
when  he  created  the  world."  ''  Another  piece  of 
poetical  mysticism,  which  reflects  Hellenistic  specu- 
lation, is  his  conceit  that  this  world  and  the  future 
world  were  created  by  the  two  letters  of  God's 
name.  A  remarkably  large  number  of  Greek 
words  occur  in  the  Haggadah  which  has  come  down 
in  his  name;  and  it  is  probable  that  he  sojourned 
for  some  time  in  Alexandria.  He  uses  the  Nile  as 
the  image  of  a  moral  lesson,  and  the  description  of 
the  beauty  and  size  of  the  great  Alexandrian  syna- 
gogue is  ascribed  to  him." 

While  social  intercourse  with  their  Hellenistic 
neighbours  was  forbidden  to  the  Jews,  and  the 
study  of  Hellenistic  literature  was  discouraged, 
yet,  even  during  the  period  of  stress,  no  attempt 
was  made  in  Palestine  to  prohibit  the  use  of  the 
Greek  tongue.  The  praise  which  R.  Judah  be- 
stowed on  the  Greek  language  has  already  been 
mentioned.  When  the  danger  of  the  Hellenization 
of  Judaism  was  passed,  the  Rabbis  found  it  possible 

305 


HELLENISM 

to  admire  the  excellence  of  the  Greek  tongue,  as  the 
earliest  teachers  had  done  before  the  danger  was 
apparent.  It  was  spoken  of  as  ^"  that  which  had 
no  fault."  "  Compared  with  Latin,  the  language 
of  the  cruel  Christian  and  Roman  persecutors, 
Greek  gained  a  new  charm.  Rab  Huna  (about 
250  C.  E.)  said:  "The  Greek  kingdom  was  su- 
perior to  the  Roman  in  three  things :  in  law,  science, 
and  language."  "  Latin  was  essentially  the  language 
of  brute  materialism  and  of  idolatry;  whereas 
Greek  fitted  philosophical  and  spiritual  ideas. 
Another  late  Amora,  R.  Jonathan  of  Eleutheropo- 
lis,  said  in  the  same  spirit  that  the  Greek  language 
was  excellent  for  poetry,  Latin  for  war. 

The  vocabulary  of  the  rabbinical  writings  like- 
wise bears  witness  to  Greek  influence.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  there  are  three  thousand  borrowed 
words,  mostly  Greek,  in  the  Talmud;  Greek  tran- 
scriptions are  used  not  only  for  oflicial  and  legal 
terms,  but  for  names  of  animals  and  plants,  for 
abstract  and  scientific  ideas,  and  even  for  synonyms 
of  the  most  cherished  Jewish  institutes,  as  NoVos  for 
the  Torah.  Some  scholars  have  maintained  that 
there  existed  in  Palestine  and  in  the  western  Jewish 
communities   a   Judeo-Greek   dialect,    comparable 

306 


THE  AFTERMATH 

with  the  Judeo-Arabic  of  later  centuries,  or  with  the 
Jiidisch-Deutsch  of  more  modern  times." 

We  have  further  proof  that  many  of  the  Tan- 
naim  and  Amoraim  (though  they  spoke  and  wrote 
in  Aramaic),  knew  the  foreign  language,  in  that 
they  frequentlyresort  to  an  interpretation  of  biblical 
words  based  on  a  Greek  transliteration  of  the  He- 
brew, in  order  to  draw  some  improving  homily  or 
some  striking  meaning.  Joel  has  ingeniously  shown 
how  the  Rabbis  detected  a  peculiar  value  in  the 
Greek  translation  when  they  came  to  attach  the 
traditional  lore  to  the  text.  Holy  Writ  had  a 
meaning  in  other  languages  as  well  as  Hebrew; 
and  to  the  Torah-intoxicated  mind  of  the  com- 
mentator the  assonance  of  the  Greek  equivalent 
with  some  other  Hebrew  word  could  not  be  an  acci- 
dent." One  Rabbi  explains  the  name  Jeremiah 
as  derived  from  the  Greek  Eremia — desolation; 
and  another  associated  the  Torah  with  Theoria, 
the  Greek  word  for  contemplation.  Doubless  the 
use  of  Aquila's  translation  suggested  some  of  the 
interpretations,  which  are  due  not  to  indifferent  phi- 
lology of  the  Rabbis,  though  the  Rab-bis  were 
neither  exact  philologists  nor  exact  theologians,  but 
to  their  zeal  in  the  search  for  homilies.  Other  indi- 
cations of  knowledge  of  Greek  occur  where  a  Greek 

307 


HELLENISM 

image  Is  used;  as  when  R.  Hanlna  compares  the 
soul  leaving  the  body  to  a  cable  threaded  through 
a  mast — a  translation  of  a  Greek  proverb — ,"  or 
when  R.  Eleazar  ben  Pedat  quotes  a  Greek  maxim, 
"  unwritten  law  is  before  the  king,"  In  support 
of  God's  excellence,  which  is  shown  In  that  God, 
unlike  a  king,  obeys  His  own  laws."  Possibly 
the  maxim  was  written  up  above  the  Basilica,  i.  e., 
the  law-court  of  the  city  In  which  the  Rabbi  lived. 
Again,  R.  Simon  ben  Laklsh  quotes  the  words  of 
a  prayer  In  Greek:  "Thou  hast  sent  abundant 
rain,  O  Lord."  " 

The  sudden  appearance  of  Greek  phrases  in  the 
Talmud  Is  not  rare,  and  single  Greek  words  are  as 
common  as  Latin  tags  in  eighteenth  century  En- 
glish. A  few  of  the  Rabbis  of  the  later  period  not 
only  patronized  the  Greek  language,  but  also 
showed  favor  to  Greek  culture.  R.  Johanan  bar 
Nappaha,  one  of  the  Amoralm  of  the  generation 
following  R.  Judah,  In  commenting  on  the  story  of 
Noah  and  his  sons,  placed  Shem,  the  ancestor  of 
the  Jews,  and  Japheth,  the  ancestor  of  the  Greeks, 
on  an  equality.  Shem  has  obtained  the  Tallith, 
the  emblem  of  religious  zeal,  Japheth  the  pallium, 
the  philosopher's  mantle.  The  Jewish  Haggadlst 
thus  anticipated  the  English  essayist  In  distinguish- 

308 


THE  AFTERMATH 


ing  the  functions  of  the  two  great  civilizing  peoples. 
His  contemporary  Bar  Kappara,  a  famous  mystical 
teacher,  whose  knowledge  of  Greek  is  vouched  for 
in  the  record  of  his  tradition,  Interpreted  the  same 
verse  In  a  way  still  more  favorable  to  the  Greek 
tongue.  Playing  on  the  Hebrew  na^  he  said: 
"  The  words  of  the  Torah  shall  be  recited  in  the 
speech  of  Japheth  {i,  e.,  Greek)  in  the  schools  and 
synagogues. 

In  the  generation  of  the  Patriarch  Judah's  dis- 
ciples (i.  e.,  the  first  part  of  the  third  century), 
several  facts  suggest  a  partial  breaking-down  of  the 
wall  of  seclusion  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  a 
closer  acquaintance  among  the  Jewish  sages  with 
Hellenistic  Ideas.  The  bitterness  of  the  era  of 
conflict  was  mitigated,  and  the  Jew,  confirmed  in 
his  religious  faith,  could  afford  to  mingle  with  the 
Christian  apologist  or  the  pagan  philosopher.  R. 
Johanan  Is  said,  on  the  authority  of  R.  Abbahu,  to 
have  taught  his  sons  and  daughters  Greek.  He  ex- 
plained, In  justification  to  those  who  expressed  sur- 
prise, that  a  knowledge  of  Greek  protected  a  man 
from  slander  and  was  an  ornament  for  an  educated 
woman,  and  that  the  prohibition  against  learning 
It  was  a  temporary  measure  designed  to  prevent 
informing  during  the  struggle  against  the  Roman 


HELLENISM 

commanders/'  Another  Rabbi  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, R.  Levi  bar  Haitah,  reports  that  he  heard  the 
Shema'  recited  in  Greek  at  Caesarea,  and  a  ruling 
was  given  that  the  Shema'  might  be  recited  thus,  so 
that  the  commandment  of  understanding  its  mean- 
ing might  be  fulfilled." 

Caesarea,  the  foundation  of  Herod  and  the 
chief  port  of  Palestine  during  the  early  centuries 
of  the  common  era,  was  the  principal  city  in  which 
Jewish  teachers  were  in  contact  with  Hellenistic 
civilization,  and  intercourse  between  Jews  and 
Gentiles  was  particularly  fostered.  After  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem  it  became  the  capital  of 
Palestine,  and  it  rivalled  Alexandria  as  a  meeting- 
place  of  cultures.  The  Rabbis  called  it  the  metrop- 
olis of  kings,"*  but  it  was  rather  a  metropolis  of 
scholars.  Origen,  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
earlier  Christian  apologists,  and  the  compiler  of 
the  Hexapla  Bible,  recounts  that  he  conversed  there 
with  Jews.  He  must  have  derived  from  them  his 
not  over-abundant  Hebrew  knowledge,  as  centuries 
later  Luther  derived  from  the  Rabbis  of  Germany 
acquaintance  with  the  Hebrew  Bible.  It  is  a  happy 
conjecture  of  Graetz  that  among  the  Jewish  sages 
whom  Origen  consulted  was  R.  Hosha'ya,  a  dis- 
ciple of  Bar  Kappara  (whose  favor  toward  Greek 

310 


THE  AFTERMATH 

has   been   quoted).      The    Midrash   records   dia- 
logues which  R.  Hosha'ya  held  with  a  philosopher. 
They  discussed,  among  other  things,  the  reasons 
for  the  necessity   for  circumcision  " — one   of  the 
subjects  on  which  the  Church  was  ever  ready  to 
contend  with  the  Synagogue.     It  may  well  be  that 
the  philosopher  was  none  other  than  Origen.''    To 
R.  Hosha'ya  tradition  ascribed  the  passage  at  the 
opening  of  the   Midrash  on  Genesis,  which  says 
that  God  created  the  world  by  the  aid  of  the  Torah, 
in  the  same  way  as  a  king  employs  an  architect  to 
draw  plans  of  his  palace.    The  image  of  the  archi- 
tect and  plan  corresponds  strikingly  with  a  pic- 
ture which   Philo   gives   of  the   creation;   and   as 
Origen  was  a  faithful  follower  of  Philo's  allegori- 
cal method,  and  possessed  at  Cassarea  manuscripts 
of  all  his  works,  it  is  possible  that  the  Midrash  is 
an   indirect  adaptation   of  the  Alexandrian   alle- 
gory, induced  by  ideas  which  passed  from  Origen 
to  R.  Hosha'ya. 

R.  Joshua  ben  Levi  is  another  Amora  who  in- 
troduced pieces  of  religious  idealism,  which  may 
perhaps  be  adapted  from  a  Hellenistic  source.  He 
declares  that  all  things  were  originally  created  by 
God  in  their  perfection '' — a  poetical  variation  of 
the  theory  of  creation  through  ideal  archetypes. 

311 


HELLENISM 

R.  Joshua,  as  well  as  R.Hosha'ya,  lived  and  taught 
at  Caesarea;  and  thus  may  have  come  to  know 
Alexandrian  teaching,  either  directly  or  Indirectly 
through  Christian  disputants.  The  Christian 
teachers  In  Palestine,  who  loved  to  find — or  foist — 
Chrlstologlcal  passages  In  the  Hellenistic  litera- 
ture, were  not  slow  In  confronting  the  Jews  with 
the  allegorical  interpretations  in  the  religious  phi- 
losophy of  Phllo  and  Arlstobulus  and  the  other 
writers  of  the  Alexandrian  school  whom  they  had 
adapted  to  their  own  ends.  The  works  of  Orlgen 
and  Clement  are  full  of  passages  from  these  books 
which  pointed,  as  they  held,  to  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity. And  that  Christian  scholars  argued  on 
these  things  with  loyal  Jews  Is  clear  enough,  on  the 
one  hand,  from  the  dialogues,  which  have  come 
down  to  us,  between  Justin  and  Trypho  and  Jason 
and  Paslphaos,  and,  on  the  other,  from  the  fre- 
quent reports  In  the  Midrash  of  disputes  between 
the  Rabbis  and  philosophers  or  Minim  or  Roman 
emperors.''  If  only  for  the  purpose  of  contro- 
versy, it  was  necessary  for  the  Jewish  sages  to  have 
a  knowledge  of  the  literature  on  which  their  op- 
ponents relied;  and  hence  some  influence  of  Hellen- 
istic  Judaism    crept   surreptitiously    into    rabbinic 

312 


THE  AFTERMATH 

Judaism,  and  colored  the  religious  cosmology  and 
the  theology  of  the  MIdrash. 

References  to  Greek  renderings  of  biblical  pas- 
sages appear  In  the  Haggadah  of  the  fourth  century 
teachers,  such  as  R.  Joshua,  R.  Reuben,  and  R. 
Judah.  Thus  the  contact  with  Greek  was  never 
entirely  suspended  in  the  rabbinical  schools  till  the 
Christianizing  of  the  Roman  empire  and  the  con- 
sequent persecution  and  isolation  of  the  Jews.  The 
Infiltration  of  Greek  knowledge  was  not  restricted 
to  the  Palestinian  colleges.  Babylon  began  to  vie 
with  Palestine  as  the  home  of  Jewish  learning  from 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  and  many  of  the 
most  famous  heads  of  the  schools  in  Palestine  came 
originally  from  the  East.  Greek  culture  cannot 
have  been  as  firmly  established  In  Mesopotamia  as 
in  Galilee,  and  little  by  little  it  was  supplanted,  as 
the  Roman  power  weakened  and  the  Persian  pre- 
vailed. Yet  the  Babylonian  Amoraim  not  only  used 
Greek  words  frequently,  but  adapted  Hellenistic 
conceptions  to  their  Hebraic  outlook. 

Perhaps  because  the  danger  of  contamination  by 
foreign  influence  was  less  strong  than  in  Palestine, 
the  mystical  and  allegorical  teachings  of  the  Hel- 
lenistic epoch  were  not  as  severely  repressed  In  the 
Babylonian  schools.     Rabbah,  a  great  Babylonian 

313 


HELLENISM 

Halaklst  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  third  century, 
was  the  author  of  the  idea  that  God  accomplished 
the  creation  by  means  of  ten  ideas  or  attributes: 
Wisdom,  Understanding,  Justice,  Love,  etc.  To 
him  also  is  ascribed  a  certain  Midrash  about  Be- 
zalel — the  artificer  of  the  tabernacle — which  shows 
a  remarkable  correspondence  with  the  idealistic 
allegories  of  Philo.  Interpreting  Bezalel's  name 
according  to  its  Hebrew  etymology  as  "  the  shadow 
of  God,"  Philo  says:  *'  The  shade  of  God  is  really 
His  wisdom  with  which  He  made  the  world";'* 
while  Rabbah  explains  that  Bezalel  knew  how  to 
combine  letters  by  which  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
were  created.*"  The  notion  of  creation  by  letters 
occurs  in  another  midrashic  fancy  that  this  world 
is  the  work  of  the  n ,  and  the  world  hereafter  the 
work  of  the  '  in  the  divine  name.'"  Such  fancies 
concerning  creation  by  means  of  letters  appear  to 
be  the  prototype  of  those  kabbalistic  notions  which 
took  strong  hold  of  a  section  of  the  Jewish  people 
in  the  early  part  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  mystic 
doctrine  of  cosmology  and  the  myths  about  angels, 
which  had  been  produced,  or  at  least  stimulated, 
by  the  combination  of  Hebrew  religious  feeling 
and  Greek  speculation,  were  current  in  Palestine 
before  the  Christian  era.     The  lore  was  partly 

314 


THE  AFTERMATH 

preserved  in  the  esoteric  teachings  of  the  rabbinical 
schools  which  were  not  committed  to  writing,  and 
partly  turned  into  the  rank  growth  of  heresies 
which  sprang  out  of  the  soil  of  Hellenlzed  Juda- 
ism. Struck  out  of  the  public  teaching  of  the 
schools,  it  was  never  entirely  eliminated,  either 
in  Palestine  or  Babylon,  from  Jewish  tradition,  and 
was  nourished  from  time  to  time  by  the  outside 
influence  of  syncretlstic  culture.  Those  Rabbis 
who  were  reputed  masters  of  the  secret  wisdom, 
such  as  R.  Judah  ben  Ilai  and  Bar  Kappara,  and 
manifest  also  a  knowledge  of  Greek,  formed  a  kind 
of  liberal  school  in  the  colleges,  and  no  attempt 
was  made  to  prohibit  their  speculation. 

The  mystical  teaching  was  established  as  part  of 
the  thought  of  the  people;  and  when  the  struggle 
with  Hellenism  had  ended,  there  was  not  the  same 
necessity  for  excluding  the  record  of  it  from  the 
Midrash.  Yet,  as  late  as  the  fourth  century,  the 
warning  is  uttered  by  R.  Ami  not  to  disclose  the 
secrets  of  the  Torah  save  to  him  who  Is  a  leader 
and  pre-eminent  in  wisdom  and  understanding.'' 
It  was  only  after  the  hold  of  the  Law  had  been 
strengthened  by  centuries  of  discipline  that  the 
speculation  Into  the  before  and  after  became  an 
interest  of  the  general  body;  and  then  it  could  no 

815 


HELLENISM 

longer  work  the  mischief  which  it  had  threatened 
at  the  crisis  of  the  Jewish  Puritan  Reformation. 
It  plays  a  large  part  in  the  later  MIdrashim  and  the 
so-called  neo-Hebralc  apocalypse,  which  date  from 
the  seventh  century;  a  much  larger  part,  indeed, 
than  Is  allotted  to  it  in  the  earlier  Haggadah.  But 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that,  though  the  last 
section  of  the  tradition  to  be  written  down,  these 
MIdrashim  had  their  origin  In  early  speculation. 
The  permanent  influence  of  Hellenistic  ideas  on 
Jewish  tradition  lies  In  the  mystical  notions,  which 
are  not  prominent  in  the  older  collections  of  rab- 
binical wisdom,  just  because  they  were  treated  as  a 
secret  and  higher  wisdom  which  was  not  to  be 
divulged.  They  find  expression  occasionally  in  the 
MIdrash  of  the  Tannalm  and  Amoralm  through 
some  fancy  about  the  Torah,  or  the  creation,  or 
the  wisdom  of  God;  and  occasionally  the  less  mys- 
tical idealism  of  Hellenistic  Judaism  Is  reproduced 
in  the  rabbinic  theology.  Dr.  Neumark  has  at- 
tempted "  to  trace  a  definite  and  systematic  phi- 
losophy running  through  the  Haggadah,  divided  in 
proper  form  into  a  doctrine  of  Ideas  and  a  doctrine 
of  Emanations  (the  Mdaseh  Bereshit  and  Mdaseh 
Merkabah,  respectively),  and  derived  in  regular 
succession  from  Hillel  and  Johanan  ben  Zaccai,  like 

316 


THE  AFTERMATH 

the  teachings  of  the  Greek  schools;  but  this  attempt 
is  more  heroic  than  convincing. 

Jewish  tradition  preserved  from  the  Hellenistic 
era  rather  a  mystical  than  a  philosophical  doctrine. 
Mysticism  is  the  outcome  of  the  fusion  of  the  re- 
ligious with  the  Inquiring  sense;  the  attempt  to 
transcend  by  vision  what  cannot  be  attained  by 
reason;  and  thus  It  represents  the  natural  conse- 
quence of  the  combination  of  Hebraism  and  Hel- 
lenism. How  it  developed  In  Palestine  and  Baby- 
lon between  the  time  of  Phllo  and  eight  hundred 
years  later  when  we  begin  to  get  a  full  record,  we 
cannot  tell;  but  that  it  was  sustained  through  all 
that  period  is  shown  first  by  the  constant  refer- 
ences to  mystical  and  gnostic  teaching  In  the  age 
of  the  Tannaim,  by  the  considerable  fragments  of 
mystic  doctrine  which  occur  In  the  Haggadah  of 
many  of  the  Amoraim,  and  finally  by  the  Hel- 
lenistic and  mystical  coloring  of  the  later  Mid- 
rashim.  The  war  which  R.  Akiba  declared  upon 
Greek  wisdom  and  external  books  was  an  episode 
rendered  necessary  by  the  storm  and  stress  of  the 
time  and  the  machinations  of  heretics,  and  it  saved 
Judaism  from  disintegration.  But  If  he  and  his 
successors  effectively  checked  the  excess  of  gnosti- 
cism, and  succeeded  In  establishing  the  Law  and 
31  317 


HELLENISM 

the  Halakah  as  the  solid  basis  of  Jewish  life  in 
the  dispersion,  they  did  not  succeed — and  they 
could  hardly  have  desired  to  succeed — in  cutting 
out  the  mystical  yearnings  of  the  people  for  a 
closer  communion  with  God,  and  a  fuller  under- 
standing of  His  workings.  At  any  rate  those  yearn- 
ings persisted;  they  lay  hidden  for  a  time  under  the 
great  growth  of  the  legal  literature ;  but  when  Juda- 
ism again  came  out  into  the  light,  and  new  in- 
fluences from  without  were  introduced  to  fertilize 
its  teaching,  they  received  fuller  play.  They  out- 
lived the  time  when  Hellenistic  development  of 
Judaism  was  already  forgotten  in  the  schools,  and 
when  Greek  had  become  an  unknown  language  not 
only  to  the  masses  but  to  the  sages  of  the  people. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  knowledge  of  Greek 
disappeared  in  the  East,  though  it  was  main- 
tained in  the  schools  and  communities  of  the  West. 
The  centre  of  Jewish  learning,  however,  was  now 
fixed  In  Mesopotamia,  where  the  Persian  kings 
gave  the  Jews  a  large  measure  of  autonomy;  and  a 
new  Erez  Israel  was  formed  to  give  a  glamor  to 
the  exile.  Knowledge  of  the  foreign  language 
gradually  dwindled  in  these  schools,  far  removed 
from  Greek  influence.  But  Greek  culture,  like  the 
phoenix,  was  immortal;  and  from  its  ashes  in  the 

318 


THE  AFTERMATH 

Orient  a  few  centuries  later  another  creation  arose, 
which  fructified  Jewish  thought,  and  led  it  to  pro- 
duce a  new  philosophical  literature. 

In  the  West  it  was  not  so  much  the  barbarians 
as  barbarity  which  cut  off  Jews  from  contact  with 
the  Greek-speaking  world.  The  emperors  had 
maintained  a  consistent  attitude  of  tolerance  until 
Christianity  was  established  as  the  creed  of  the  em- 
pire. Severus,  indeed,  was  dubbed  "  archisyna- 
gogus " — president  of  the  synagogue;  and  he 
placed  in  his  bed-chamber  texts  from  the  book  of 
Genesis.  Even  Constantine,  who  by  imperial  re- 
script made  the  revolutionary  change  in  the  State 
religion,  declared  that  it  was  impossible  to  force 
belief  on  anybody.  But  that  idea  was  not  restored 
in  Europe  till  the  day  of  Voltaire.  As  Christianity 
prevailed,  the  position  of  the  Jews  became  worse; 
the  bitterest  of  wars  raged  between  Church  and 
Synagogue,  though  war  it  can  hardly  be  called,  since 
the  Christians  had  at  their  back  the  whole  force  of 
the  empire,  and  the  Jews  had  only  their  Torah. 
The  tradition  of  tolerance,  which  was  inherited 
from  the  pagan  times,  mitigated  the  oppression 
for  a  time ;  and  the  short-lived  advent  of  the  pagan 
emperor  Julian  brought  relief  to  the  Jewish  people. 
He  it  was  who  summed  up  his  opinion  of  Chris- 

319 


HELLENISM 

tianity  In  the  words  d^eyvwj/,  eyvtov,  Kariyvoiv,  "  I  read,  I 
knew,  I  condemned,"  and  in  hatred  of  the  Church 
he  proposed  to  restore  the  Jewish  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem. But  the  favor  of  the  pagan  emperors  was 
the  measure  of  the  hatred  of  the  Christian  patri- 
archs and  bishops,  who,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  century,  were  for  the  most  part  supreme  in  the 
counsels  of  the  empire.  Ambrosius,  the  celebrated 
father,  demanded  insistently  that  the  Jews  should 
be  completely  isolated,  and  should  not  be  allowed  to 
hold  converse  with  Christians.  The  mission  which 
was  still  preached  from  the  synagogue  in  Greek, 
was  a  hated  competitor  of  the  Church;  the  very  ex- 
istence of  the  synagogue  was  an  eyesore  and  a 
menace.  The  Jews  must  be  allowed  to  survive  as 
"  a  witness  "  to  the  truth  of  the  Church's  teaching; 
but  their  life  must  be  made  miserable  for  the  same 
end.  Cyril,  the  "  most  Christian "  bishop  of 
Alexandria,  expelled  all  Jews  from  the  city  of  Alex- 
andria, and  persecuted  them  bitterly  when  any  were 
found  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  Thus  the  greatest 
Jewish  community  of  the  Hellenistic  diaspora  was 
finally  broken  up.  Augustine  at  Rome,  who  was 
under  the  influence  of  Ambrosius,  and  who  stamped 
his  ideas  upon  European  civilization  during  the 
Dark  and  Middle  Ages,  taught  that  the  Jews  had 

320 


THE  AFTERMATH 

no  place  in  the  Christian  state:  their  law  was 
a  **  most  baneful  schoolmaster"  {moles  tissimus 
paedagogus)  ^  their  synagogues  must  be  put  down. 
The  campaign  of  the  teachers  of  the  Church  pro- 
duced the  bitter  anti-Jewish  legislation  of  Theo- 
dosius  and  Justinian  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries. 
No  new  synagogue  might  be  built,  and  an  attempt 
was  made  to  close  those  which  existed.  It  was  de- 
clared a  capital  offence  for  a  Jew  to  proselytize,  and 
for  a  Gentile  to  be  converted  to  Judaism.  Jews 
were  forbidden  to  hold  slaves  of  any  other  na- 
tionality, and  marriage  between  Jew  and  Christian 
was  stringently  prohibited.  Thus  the  isolation  of 
the  Jews  was  gradually  accomplished,  not,  as  is 
often  supposed  even  by  Jews,  by  the  meticulous 
regulations  of  rabbinical  law,  but  by  the  calculated 
hostility  of  the  Church  which  claimed  to  be  univer- 
sal and  to  bring  with  it  an  Evangel  of  Peace  for 
all  mankind. 

Down  to  the  time  of  Justinian  many  Jews  of  the 
Byzantine  empire  must  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
reading  the  Bible  in  Greek  as  well  as  in  Hebrew. 
The  emperor  in  the  year  553  issued  a  famous 
Novel  concerned  with  Jewish  ritual,  which  is  the 
first  legislative  attempt  by  an  external  power  to  fix 
Jewish  belief  and  practice,  and  is  a  document  of  the 

321 


HELLENISM 

first  Importance  upon  the  attitude  of  the  Jews  of 
the  later  empire  both  to  the  Greek  language  and 
the  rabbinical  tradition.  The  Novel  recites  that, 
according  to  reports,  some  of  the  Jews  hold  exclu- 
sively to  the  Hebrew  speech  and  desire  to  use  it  for 
the  reading  of  Scripture,  while  others  claim  to  use 
the  Greek  language  as  well  for  the  liturgy.  The 
champions  of  the  tradition  were  opposed  to  this 
usage,  but  the  emperor  ordains  complete  liberty  to 
either  party  to  follow  their  desire  and  to  use  any 
language  for  the  reading  of  Scripture  In  the  syna- 
gogue, so  that  all  may  understand.  He  threatens 
capital  punishment  and  confiscation  of  their  prop- 
erty against  any  dignitaries  of  the  Jewish  clergy 
who  excommunicate  or  punish  those  who  read  the 
Bible  in  any  language  but  the  Hebrew.  Further,  he 
restricts  the  Greek  texts  which  may  be  used  to  two : 
the  Septuagint  and  Aqulla's  version;  and  strongly 
recommends  the  former  "  which  is  far  more  exact, 
and  is  remarkable  for  the  fact  that,  though  the 
translators  were  separated  and  gave  their  Inter- 
pretation in  different  places,  they  nevertheless  all 
reached  one  result.  And  though  the  Seventy  lived 
long  before  Jesus,  they  yet  presaged  his  coming,  and 
Inserted  the  tradition  of  It  by  a  kind  of  prophetic 
grace  ....     But  In  order  not  to  exclude  alto- 

322 


THE  AFTERMATH 

gather  the  other  renderings,  we  give  them  Hberty 
to  use  that  of  Aquila,  though  he  was  a  proselyte, 
and  does  not  accord  well  with  the  Seventy  in  regard 
to  certain  meanings."  The  imperial  preference 
for  the  Septuagint  contrasts  with  the  rabbinical 
favor  toward  Aquila. 

The  Christian  legislator  was  in  more  direct  oppo- 
sition to  Jewish  tradition  and  feeling  in  prohibiting 
absolutely  the  use  in  the  synagogue  of  the  oral  law, 
which,  he  declared,  had  blinded  them  to  the  Chris- 
tian teaching.  "  By  abandoning  themselves  to  their 
insensate  interpretations,  they  have  w^andered  away 
from  the  true  light.  We  ordain,  therefore,  that 
they  have  liberty  to  come  together  in  their  syna- 
gogues and  read  the  sacred  books  in  the  Greek 
tongue,  but  that  no  liberty  is  to  be  given  to  the 
Interpreters  among  them,  who  hand  down  only  a 
Hebrew  tradition,  to  pervert  that  according  to  their 
own  sweet  will,  and  to  cover  their  false  doctrine 
under  the  ignorance  of  the  mass.  That  second 
edition,  as  they  call  it,  we  prohibit  altogether, 
because  it  has  no  connection  with  the  Scriptures. 
It  has  not  been  transmitted  to  us  by  the  prophets, 
but  it  is  an  invention  of  men  w^ho  spoke  only  of 
earthly  things,  and  had  not  the  divine  spark."  '' 
Some  have  inferred  from  the  Novel  the  existence  of 

323 


HELLENISM 


a  Greek  translation  of  the  Mishnah;  but  the  pro- 
hibited "  second  edition  "  is  more  probably  to  be 
identified  with  the  Haggadah;  nor  is  it  at  all  clear 
that  this  "  edition  "  referred  to  existed  in  a  Greek 
form."    What  may  be  deduced,  however,  is  that  the 
struggle  between  Hebrew  and  Greek  was  still  main- 
tained in  the  Synagogue  to  the  sixth  century,  and 
that  in  some  countries,  despite  the  rabbinical  ban, 
a  section  desired  the  Scriptures  to  be  read  solely 
in   the   version   of   the    Septuagint   or   of   Aquila, 
unaccompanied  by  the  recital  of  the  rabbinical  com- 
mentary.    The  Imperial  legislator  saw  that  in  the 
Hebrew  Bible  and  Its  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  interpre- 
tation lay  the  strength  of  Judaism,  while  the  Sep- 
tuagint version  of  the  Old  Testament  was  a  step 
toward  Christianity.    Justinian  went  on  to  menace 
with  exile  and  the  extreme  penalties  of  the  law  all 
Jews  who  dare  to  maintain  that  there  is  neither 
resurrection  nor  last  judgment,  or  that  the  angels 
are  not  divine  beings.     It  would  seem  that  a  party 
in  the  Jewish  communities  persisted  in  maintaining 
the  standpoint  of  the  ancient  Sadducees,  and  formed 
a  link  between  them  and  the  Karaites.     And  the 
emperor  was  an  enemy  of  heretical  teaching  among 
the  despised  Jews ;  for  heresy  was  infectious. 

324 


THE  AFTERMATH 

The  Jews  were  more  completely  thrown  back 
on  their  rabbinical  tradition  as  the  Church  began  to 
press  them  in  more  narrowly  by  the  construction  of 
ghettos.  In  remote  corners  of  the  civilized  world, 
in  the  far  west  of  the  North-African  coast,  in  Abys- 
sinia, and  in  the  vicinity  of  the  great  African  desert, 
a  few  Hellenistic  colonies  remained  out  of  the 
reach  of  Christian  oppression;  preserving  not  in- 
deed the  Greek  tongue,  but  some  of  the  syncretistic 
ideas  and  beliefs  which  had  sprung  up  during  the 
Hellenistic  period.  Greek,  indeed,  was  still  spoken 
by  Jewish  congregations  in  the  Provence  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  But  otherwise  the  knowledge  of  Greek 
seems  to  have  completely  disappeared  among  the 
Jews. 

Intercourse  with  Hellenistic  thought  was  again 
brought  about  in  the  Jewish  schools  in  the  eighth 
century.  The  first  half  of  the  gaonic  period,  when 
the  law  was  arranged  and  codified  and  the  Tal- 
mud was  written  down,  manifested  little  or  no 
movement  toward  the  production  of  philosophical 
and  mystical  literature.  But  the  conquest  of  the 
Persian  dominions  by  the  Arabs  and  the  develop- 
ment of  Arabic  culture  in  the  Jewish  environment 
brought  anew,  though  indirectly,  into  Jewish  litera- 
ture a  vigorous  Hellenistic  influence.     Under  the 

325 


HELLENISM 

wise  rule  of  the  Abbasid  Caliphs,  the  Arabs  de- 
veloped a  remarkable  philosophical  culture,  and 
assimilated  a  great  part  of  the  literature  of  the 
classical  and  Hellenistic  age,  which  had  been  trans- 
lated into  Syriac.  The  Jews,  quick  to  take  part  in 
the  intellectual  revival,  again  became  acquainted 
through  Arabic  writings  with  outside  culture,  and, 
at  second  hand,  with  the  thoughts  of  their  people 
which,  before  the  Dark  Ages  had  fallen,  had  sprung 
from  the  mixture  of  Hellenism  and  Hebraism. 
The  apocalypses  and  the  mystical  wisdom  had  not 
entirely  passed  out  of  knowledge;  and  under  the 
fresh  impulse,  their  study  revived.  A  new  Hebrew 
apocalyptic  literature  was  composed,  claiming  in- 
deed to  be  ancient,  and  imitating  and  reproducing 
the  ideas  of  the  Old  Testatment  visions.  A  Hebrew 
book  of  Enoch,  a  Hebrew  Assumption  of  Moses, 
the  Mystery  of  R.  Joshua  ben  Levi,  containing 
revelations  supposed  to  have  been  received  from 
Elijah,  and  apocalypses  of  Elijah  and  Zerubbabel, 
have  survived  from  the  period.  The  divine  Power 
plays  a  large  part  in  most  of  these  books,  and  the 
idea  of  a  heavenly  hierarchy  and  of  a  series  of 
heavens  is  common  to  them  all.  Enoch,  w^ho  had 
been  the  favorite  figure  of  the  older  apocalypse, 
appears  with  a  new  prerogative  as  a  divine  agent  in 

326 


THE  AFTERMATH 

creation.  He  is  identified  with  Metatron — the 
archangel  and  divine  potency — and  the  Sefer  Heka- 
lot,  in  which  Metatron  plays  the  chief  role,  Is  also 
called  the  Book  of  Enoch. 

From  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  also  date  the 
pseudeplgraphic  books  of  the  Secret  Tradition,  or 
Kabbalah,  as  it  was  simply  called,  which  claimed 
the  authorship  of  the  great  Tannalm,  but  mani- 
festly was  not  composed  before  the  gaonic  period. 
The  secret  doctrines  about  the  Creation  and  the 
Chariot,  which  had  hitherto  been  handed  down 
orally,  were  now  committed  to  writing  and  embel- 
lished with  current  images  of  divine  beings  and 
demons,  and  fancies  about  angels,  and  cosmogony 
by  letters.  This  mediaeval  speculation  shows  the 
influence  of  neo-Platonic  philosophy,  which  was  it- 
self the  outcome  of  the  mixture  of  Oriental  with 
Greek  thought.  The  most  celebrated  of  the  Kab- 
ballst  books  is  the  Sefer  Yezirah,  described  as  the 
first  philosophical  book  written  In  Hebrew;  and 
others  of  the  same  genus  are  the  Greater  and 
Smaller  Hekalot,  the  Book  of  Raziel,  and  the 
Sefer  ha-Yashar.  It  is  said  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Sefer  Yezirah:  "  By  thirty-two  wonderful  paths 
the  Eternal  has  created  the  world  in  three  forms : 
number,    letter,    and    speech;    ten    numbers    self- 

327 


HELLENISM 

contained  and  twenty-two  letters."  The  mystical 
cosmogony  was  characteristic  of  the  thinking  of  the 
age,  and  led  on  to  the  more  philosophical  doctrine 
of  Sefirot  or  emanations,  which  appears  later  in  the 
more  developed  kabballstic  literature. 

The  latest  of  the  MIdrashim,  the  Midrash  Tad- 
she  and  the  Midrash  Konen,  were  compiled  during 
the  same  period.  The  first  purports  to  be  the  work 
of  the  saintly  Tanna  R.  Phlneas  ben  Jair,  and  has 
remarkable  correspondence  with  the  Book  of  Jubi- 
lees and  also  with  some  writings  of  Philo.^'  The 
inference  Is  that  It  was  composed  of  floating  alle- 
gorical and  mystical  teachings  which  were  derived 
from  a  time  when  the  Hellenistic  Influence  was 
strong  on  Judaism.  The  second  book,  which  de- 
rives Its  title  from  the  verse  in  Proverbs  (3.  19), 
'*  The  Lord  by  wisdom  founded  the  earth;  by 
understanding  He  established  (po)  the  heavens,*' 
portrays  the  pre-existence  of  the  Messiah,  and  its 
descriptions  of  Hell  and  Paradise  betray  Arab- 
Greek  influence.  The  later  kabballstic  literature 
derives  largely  from  these  sources,  but  Includes  In 
addition  a  large  amount  of  neo-PlatonIc  theology. 

Of  higher  Intellectual  value  than  this  mystic 
literature  was  the  new  development  of  Jewish  phi- 
losophy.    Fostered  likewise  by  Arabic  writers,  it 


THE  AFTERMATH 

Starts  with  Saadya  in  Egypt  In  the  tenth  century, 
reaches  its  zenith  with  Ibn  Gebirol  and  Judah 
ha-Levi  in  Spain  in  the  eleventh,  and  culminates 
with  Maimonides  in  Egypt  in  the  twelfth,  and 
Crescas  in  Spain  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
Judeo-Arabic  school  borrowed  their  system,  in  large 
measure,  from  the  Muhammedan  philosophers  who 
had  adapted  and  combined  the  Aristotelian  and 
neo-Platonic  systems  to  be  an  Intellectual  support  of 
Islam.  They  knew  no  Greek  themselves,  but  they 
acquired  their  knowledge  through  the  Arabic  trans- 
lators and  adapters.  And  while  a  great  part  of 
the  Hellenistic-Jewish  literature  was  unknown  to 
them,  and  the  very  name  of  Philo  never  occurs  in 
their  writings,  yet  indirectly  the  influence  of  Hel- 
lenistic-Jewish thought  affected  them  through  its 
absorption  in  the  later  Greek  and  early  Christian 
schools,  from  which  their  own  masters  started. 
Hellenistic-Jewish  theology  had,  in  fact,  by  the 
Middle  Ages  become  part  of  the  world's  intel- 
lectual possession.  Saadya  knows  of  the  book  of 
the  Maccabees,  the  Wisdom  of  Ben  Sira  (which 
he  refers  to  as  the  Book  of  Instruction),  and  the 
Book  of  Jubilees.''  Perhaps  the  Hebrew  text  or  an 
Aramaic  translation  of  the  apocryphal  works  had 


HELLENISM 

been  preserved  in  Egypt,  where  Jewish  learning 
was  never  altogether  extinguished. 

A  new  epoch  of  Jewish  thought  began  when  the 
mediaeval  masters  of  Jewish  learning  sought — as 
the  Alexandrians  had  done — to  defend  Judaism 
with  the  aid  of  Hellenism,  to  recast  the  substance 
of  the  one  in  the  form  of  the  other.  The  conflict 
between  Hebrew  and  Greek  culture  seemed  for  a 
time  to  have  ended  with  the  victory  of  the  Jewish 
religion;  for  Greek  wisdom  in  the  Middle  Ages 
was  its  humble  servant.  Hellenic  speculation  was 
used  to  bolster  Hebraic  belief,  and  Greek  ethics  to 
justify  the  Jewish  Torah. 


830 


CHAPTER   VIII 

CONCLUSION 

At  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  of  the  Christian 
era  the  wheel  of  civiUzation,  which  seven  hundred 
years  previously  had  been  turned  In  the  direction  of 
a  cosmopolitan  culture,  seemed  to  have  achieved  a 
full  circle.  The  Jews  were  more  isolated  and  more 
exclusively  national  than  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century  before  the  Christian  era,  when  they  were 
first  brought  Into  relation  with  Hellenism  and  began 
their  expansion.  They  had  Indeed  given  to  the 
civilized  world  a  large  part  of  their  heritage,  and 
spread  their  moral  teaching  far  and  wide;  they  had 
inspired  the  neo-Platonic  philosophy,  and  provided 
the  basis  for  a  world-religion,  but  they  seemed  to 
have  received  little  in  return  save  hatred.  An 
outside  observer  surveying  the  position  might 
judge  the  Hellenistic  movement  to  have  left  no 
trace  on  the  religion  of  Israel,  and  to  have  been  an 
aberration  rather  than  a  development;  but  if  we 
look  over  the  field  more  closely,  we  shall  find  that 

that  view  is  not  altogether  correct. 

331 


HELLENISM 

The  Jews  and  the  Hellenes  stand  out  from  the 
other  peoples,  at  the  beginning  of  the  period,  by 
their  strongly  marked  national  character  and  their 
contrasted  ideals,  which  were  the  outcome  of  gen- 
erations of  national  life  disciplined  in  a  particular 
way.  Hebraism  was  devoted  to  conduct,  or,  as  a 
Jew  would  say,  to  the  Torah ;  Hellenism  to  the  full 
development  of  all  human  faculties.  The  accep- 
tance by  the  people  of  a  lofty  moral  law  constituted 
the  greatness  of  the  one;  the  harmonious  ordering 
of  life  by  the  individual  devoted  to  the  state,  the 
greatness  of  the  other.  Virtue  to  the  Jew  meant 
righteous  life;  to  the  Hellene,  physical  and  intel- 
lectual and  moral  excellence.  Both  nations  were 
eager  for  knowledge ;  but  the  Jew  sought  for  knowl- 
edge of  God,  the  Hellene  for  knowledge  of  nature. 
Both  again  were  conscious  of  a  high  purpose  which 
raised  them  above  other  peoples;  but  the  Greeks 
were  filled  with  the  idea  of  intellectual  superiority, 
the  Jews  with  the  conviction  of  a  moral  and  relig- 
ious mission.  To  the  Greek  philosophical  specu- 
lation about  the  causes  of  things  was  of  supreme 
interest;  to  the  Jew,  the  study  of  his  history,  in 
which  he  traced  the  working  of  a  personal  God  ex- 
ecuting the  law  of  righteousness  on  the  nations.  By 
the  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great,  Hellenism 


CONCLUSION 

expanded  beyond  the  national  society  which  had 
produced  it.  It  was  deliberately  spread,  as  a 
Church  militant,  over  the  eastern  world,  through 
the  foundation  of  Hellenistic  cities  and  colonies  on 
the  pattern  of  the  city-states  of  Hellas;  but  the  con- 
ditions of  its  expansion  caused  Its  rapid  deteriora- 
tion. The  culture  of  the  Hellenic  people  was  the 
immediate  and  direct  expression  of  a  political  na- 
tional life,  and  the  spirit  that  had  thrilled  It  died 
when  that  life  ceased.  Pure  Hellenism — the  Greek 
spirit — was  never  brought  to  Palestine,  and  was 
never  imbibed  by  the  Jews;  what  did  come,  and 
what  was  imbibed  by  some  classes,  was  a  mixed 
product  of  Hellenic  wisdom  and  Oriental  civiliza- 
tion, which  presented  much  of  the  outward  show  of 
Greek  life,  but  did  not  offer  what  was  most  precious 
in  It. 

Had  the  Jews  met  Hellenism  on  Its  own  soil  and 
in  its  prime,  a  true  harmony  between  the  two  might 
possibly  have  resulted  and  produced  a  civilization 
more  splendid  and  more  complete  than  the  world 
has  yet  known.  But  Providence  did  not  work  in 
that  way,  and  in  fact  the  Jews  encountered  a  Hel- 
lenism debased  by  transplantation  to  a  strange  soil. 
The  Greek  culture  with  which  they  came  in  contact 
in  Palestine  was  contaminated  by  Hellenized 
22  333 


HELLENISM 

Syrians  with  their  crude  materialism  and  mysticism. 
Judaism,  on  the  other  hand,  was  in  the  stage  of 
vigorous  development,  and  strongly  entrenched  in 
its  national  life,  which  gave  it  a  mould  of  resistance 
to  foreign  ideas.  But  it  was  not  yet  fully  self- 
conscious,  and  had  not  reflected  on  the  basis  of  its 
religious  intuitions. 

The  superiority  of  the  external  products  of  the 
Greek  people,  of  their  art,  their  pleasures  and  their 
literature,  and  the  glamor  of  their  political  and 
military  prowess  were  strong  enough  to  exercise 
a  large  influence  in  Judea.  The  Greeks  had  con- 
quered the  East,  and  the  tendency  is  always  for  the 
subject  to  imitate  the  manners  of  the  ruler.  Hence, 
there  was  much  outward  imitation  of  Greek  fash- 
ions, and  among  some  circles  an  inward  assimila- 
tion of  the  Greek  point  of  view.  But  when  the 
attempt  was  made  to  hasten  the  process,  and  to  ex- 
tend it  from  manners  to  morals  and  from  morals  to 
religion,  the  deep-seated  feelings  of  the  people  were 
roused,  and  the  struggle  between  the  two  cultures 
began.  The  core  of  the  nation  was  sound;  they 
resisted  with  heroism  the  endeavor  of  Greeks  and 
Graecizing  Jews  to  coerce  them,  and  prevailed. 
The  struggle  ended  in  the  utter  rejection  of  the 

334 


CONCLUSION 

foreign  culture  In  Judea,  and  its  discomfiture  in  the 
whole  of  Palestine. 

Tested  in  the  trial  of  moral  strength,  Judaism 
had  become  self-conscious,  and  the  Jew  had  gained 
a  fresh  pride  in  his  religion,  a  fresh  consciousness 
of  his  mission.  The  conception  of  the  unity  of 
God  and  the  hold  of  the  Law  were  strengthened  by- 
contrast  with  the  paganism  which  the  Hellenizers 
had  tried  to  substitute  for  It.  The  Jews  passed 
from  passive  resistance  to  aggressive  iconoclasm, 
and  in  turn  spread  their  ideas  beyond  the  limits  of 
their  country.  But  traces  of  the  Syrian  Hellenism, 
which  had  been  implanted  among  the  less  educated 
masses,  endured;  and  the  victorious  Judean  people 
harbored  a  growing  semi-Hellenized  crowd  who 
had  neither  grasped  the  pure  Hebraic  faith,  nor 
received  the  pure  Hellenic  spirit.  This  populace 
fostered  the  apocalyptic  literature  with  Its  fantastic 
and  yet  somewhat  materialistic  spirituality,  which, 
while  it  was  largely  an  expression  of  the  Hebraic 
mind  and  a  development  of  the  prophetic  vision, 
shows  the  marked  impress  of  foreign  doctrine.  A 
more  distinct  relic  of  foreign  ideas  in  their  spiritual 
form  remained  in  the  sect  of  the  Essenes,  who 
represented  the  ascetic  attitude,  which  had  sprung 
up  in  the  Greek  society  out  of  the  decay  of  national 

335 


HELLENISM 

life  and  Intellectual  contemplation.  But  the  bulk 
of  the  people  were  confirmed  In  their  ancestral 
faith,  and  the  renewal  of  the  independence  of  na- 
tional life,  together  with  the  teaching  of  the  Phari- 
sees, strengthened  the  hold  and  deepened  the  con- 
ception of  Judaism. 

In  the  diaspora,  where  the  Jews  formed  a  con- 
siderable and  well-knit  element  in  the  midst  of  a 
Greek-speaking  population,  their  relation  with 
Hellenism  proceeded  otherwise.  They  pursued 
their  own  learning  in  the  synagogues,  but  at  the 
same  time  they  became  eager  to  know  the  ideas  of 
their  neighbors.  More  particularly  at  Alexandria, 
which  from  its  foundation  was  at  once  the  principal 
seat  of  cosmopolitan  culture  and  a  great  Jewish 
centre,  they  had  about  them  a  purer  and  more  genu- 
ine Hellenism  than  had  been  imported  into  Pales- 
tine. By  their  munificient  patronage  of  art  and  the 
organization  of  their  museum  and  library  with  its 
fifty  thousand  books,  representing  the  literatures  of 
all  peoples,  the  Ptolemies  contrived  to  bring  to 
their  capital  the  best  of  the  Hellenic  genius  of  the 
Silver  Age.  On  the  other  side,  the  hold  of  his  na- 
tional culture  could  not  be  as  strong  on  the  Jew  In 
dispersion  as  on  the  Jew  In  his  own  land.  Hence, 
though  the  Jewish  mind  had  not  acquired  that  imi- 


CONCLUSION 


tative  skill  and  assimilative  capacity  which  are 
characteristic  of  It  to-day,  the  Alexandrian  com- 
munity felt  the  attraction  of  Hellenism  more  rap- 
idly and  more  deeply  than  the  Palestinian.  They 
adopted  the  language  of  their  environment,  and 
endeavoured  to  adjust  their  religious  ideas  and 
observances  to  the  intellectual  standpoint  of  the 
dominant  culture.  The  translation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures Into  Greek  was  a  vital  step  In  the  adjustment. 
A  further  step  is  marked  by  the  abundant  apolo- 
getic literature,  In  which  the  Jewish  Law  Is  inter- 
preted as  a  code  of  rational  ethics,  and  a  deliberate 
attempt  Is  made  to  adopt  Greek  theology  to  the 
support  of  Judaism. 

Knowledge  of  Greek  philosophy  stimulated  the 
Jews  to  fresh  development  of  their  religious  Ideas. 
At  the  same  time  the  Maccabean  triumph  and  ac- 
quaintance with  the  weak  side  of  Hellenistic  cul- 
ture aroused  an  aggressive  missionary  spirit.  They 
preached  and  propagated  Judaism  to  the  Gentiles 
about  them,  and  denounced  the  surrounding  pagan- 
Ism  and  immorality  with  a  zest  which  did  not 
scruple  to  use  fictitious  authorities  for  the  purpose 
of  moving  the  populace.  Not  only  at  Alexandria, 
but  in  Mesopotamia,  In  Syria,  in  Asia,  and  in  the 
islands  and  cities  of  Hellas  Itself,  the  Jewish  com- 

337 


HELLENISM 

munltles  gathered  around  their  synagogues  a  num- 
ber of  proselytes  or  "  fearers  of  the  Lord,"  and 
Inculcated  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Mosaic  law 
In  those  who  were  not  willing  to  become  full  con- 
verts to  the  national  religion.  But  as  the  semi- 
Judalzed  and  seml-Hellenlzed  populace  of  Pales- 
tine was  a  source  of  weakness  to  Jewry,  because  of 
the  impure  notions  to  which  it  clung,  so  the  crowd 
of  converts  and  semi-converts  who  were  gathered 
around  the  synagogues  of  the  diaspora  were  a  dan- 
ger to  the  integrity  of  the  Jewish  faith.  They 
retained,  to  a  large  extent,  their  earlier  habit  of 
mind,  and  they  brought  into  the  Jewish  congrega- 
tion doctrines  which  were  not  In  harmony  with 
pure  monotheism.  The  literature  which  was  de- 
signed to  win  them  shows  frequent  trace  of  the 
impurities  and  of  the  compromizing  spirit  to  which 
Pharisaic  Judaism  was  a  stranger.  A  large  part 
of  Hellenistic  Jewry  remained  true  to  the  Torah 
and  the  ancestral  way  of  life,  but  a  part,  under  the 
influence  of  foreign  ideas,  tended  to  whittle  away 
the  national-religious  heritage  in  a  vague  univer- 
sallsm. 

The  finer  aspect  of  the  heightened  Jewish  self- 
consciousness  showed  itself  not  in  the  popular  mis- 
sionary movement,  but  in  the  development  of  Jew- 

338 


CONCLUSION 

ish  philosophy,  in  which  the  religious  Jewish  idea 
dominates  intellectual  conceptions  derived  from  the 
Greek  thinkers.  The  Alexandrian  teachers  ad- 
hered to  the  study  of  the  Torah  as  their  proper  and 
sufficient  wisdom,  but  looked  to  the  interpretation 
of  Scripture  not  simply  for  new  didactic  lessons, 
but  for  the  indication  of  philosophical  ideas.  One 
splendid  figure,  who  sums  up  the  deepest  aspira- 
tions of  Hellenistic  Judaism,  achieves  something 
approaching  a  harmony  between  Jewish  religion 
and  Greek  wisdom.  Philo  does  not  harmonize 
the  spirits  of  Hebraism  and  Hellenism — that  was 
impossible  in  his  day — but  he  does  fuse  the  spirit- 
ual teachings  of  the  two,  and  that  not  in  an  artificial 
and  conscious  way,  but  sincerely  and  spontaneously. 
He  created  something  new  in  literature  and 
thought.  His  philosophical  mysticism,  expressed 
in  a  poetical  prose,  was  the  most  striking  combina- 
tion of  the  religious  and  the  intellectual  ideals 
which  the  ancient  world  produced,  and  represented 
the  resultant  of  the  union  of  the  Greek  searching 
for  knowledge  of  causes  and  the  Jewish  yearning 
for  God. 

The  Jew  created  no  original  philosophical  sys- 
tem, but  he  used  the  intellectual  forms  of  others 
for  the  expression  of  his  distinctive  outlook.  Under 


HELLENISM 

the  dominance  of  the  religious  spirit,  the  trans- 
formation of  Greek  philosophy  was  bound  to  end 
in  mysticism,  the  Jewish  adoption  of  Greek  intel- 
lectual contemplation  ( OewpU)  in  a  longing  for 
ecstasy. 

Mystical  thought  is,  however,  always  exposed 
to  the  danger  that  it  tends  to  leave  the  firm  anchor- 
age of  reason  and  the  law  of  conduct.  Philo  points 
out  the  existence  of  such  an  excess  in  his  day.  He 
himself  held  fast  to  the  Law  while  he  indulged  his 
philosophical  ardor,  and  contrived  to  find  a  true 
balance  between  national  religion  and  universal 
mysticism.  But  the  influence  of  Hellenistic  philos- 
ophy was  to  lead  away  a  large  class  of  his  contem- 
poraries from  the  national  manner  of  life  into  that 
maze  of  mystical  ideas  which  is  called  gnosticism. 
The  observance  of  the  national-religious  law  was 
endangered  by  the  inordinate  desire  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  penetrate  into  the  secrets  of  the  universe; 
men  sought  to  transcend  reason  in  wild  visions 
and  imaginations.  Moreover,  the  Hellenistic 
thought  which  the  Alexandrian  sage  endeavored 
to  fuse  with  Judaism  was  mixed  with  a  number  of 
speculations  and  notions  which  were  fundamentally 
opposed  to  the  genuine  Jewish  outlook.  Egypt,  the 
cradle  of  mythology,  has  always  been  antipathetic 

340 


CONCLUSION 

to  Judaism  in  its  religious  conceptions,  and  the 
intermediary  powers  and  divine  hypostases,  which 
were  the  product  of  the  syncretism  of  Graeco- 
Egyptlan  and  Hebraic  theology,  were  brought  into 
the  Hellenistic-Jewish  philosophy  with  dangerous 
consequences.  They  were  held  by  Phllo  in  a  loose 
solution,  and  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  impair  the 
worship  of  the  one  God  of  the  Hebrew  conscience; 
but  they  were  crystallized  and  defined  by  his  suc- 
cessors and  became  the  basis  of  hybrid  sects  and 
heresies.  Graeco-Roman  society  in  the  first  and 
second  centuries  was  lapsing  into  an  extreme  of 
irrationalism,  and  Its  thought  was  In  process  of 
degradation.  The  Jewry  of  the  diaspora,  weak- 
ened by  its  proselyte  following,  was  not  proof 
against  the  influence.  By  the  abandonment  of  He- 
brew as  the  language  of  its  literature  and  its  ritual, 
it  gradually  lost  touch  with  the  Catholic  Jewish 
feehng;  and  when  the  temple  service  was  brought 
to  an  end,  the  centrifugal  tendency  became  more 
pronounced.  Hellenistic  Jewry  became  a  medley  of 
struggling  heresies  and  sects.  Animated  by  the 
desire  to  convert  the  Gentiles,  It  had  sacrificed  its 
particularism  and  weakened  its  defences;  and  by 
the  reception  of  a  large  number  of  converts  with 
a  foreign  outlook,  and  by  the  Infusion  of  non- 
341 


HELLENISM 

Jewish  notions  in  its  theology  and  philosophy,  it 
lacked  the  cohesion  which  preserved  the  strength 
and  individuality  of  the  Palestinian  community. 

When  the  Christian  teaching  of  the  Messiah 
come  to  redeem  humanity — which  was  itself  de- 
rived from  the  Hellenized  literature  of  apocalypse 
— was  disseminated  among  the  Jewish  communities, 
it  was  Greek-speaking  Jews  who  were  prominent 
in  developing  it,  and  Greek-speaking  converts  and 
"  fearers  of  the  Lord  "  to  whom  it  mainly  appealed. 
It  accorded  with  their  opposition  to  the  Law,  with 
their  desire  for  a  universal  creed  for  all  people, 
with  their  notions  of  an  intercessor  between  man 
and  God.  Hellenistic  Jews,  on  the  other  hand, 
introduced  into  the  simple  doctrine  of  the  redeem- 
ing Messiah,  which  was  the  starting-point  of  the 
Christian  doctrine,  many  of  their  theological  ideas, 
and  thus  started  the  radical  modification  of  Jewish 
monotheism  which  was  to  culminate  in  the  Trin- 
ity of  the  Church.  The  history  of  Christianity 
ceases  to  be  a  part  of  Jewish  history  from  the  time 
when  the  mythical  and  metaphysical  element,  de- 
rived from  Alexandrian  decadence,  obtained  the 
ascendancy." 

Hellenism  in  the  diaspora,  then,  nurtured  a 
creed  which  was  true  neither  to  the  cardinal  points 

342 


CONCLUSION 

of  the   Hebraic  or  the   Hellenistic    genius,    nor 
to  the  intuitive  apprehension  of  the  one  God  of 
history,  nor  to  the  eager  search  for  truth  and  knowl- 
edge.   The  strange  doctrines  had  been  less  forcibly 
resisted  there  than  in  Palestine,  and  obtained  a 
firmer  lodgment;  but  no  stable  and  lasting  synthesis 
with  Judaism  had  been  accomplished.    At  the  time 
of  the  first  preaching  of  Christianity  mystical  ideas 
were    prevalent    also    in    Palestine.      They    were 
brought  possibly  by  the  Greek-speaking  Jews  who 
were   constantly  coming  to   and   from  the  Holy 
Land;  possibly  they  were  the  outcome  of  the  Or- 
iental Hellenism  which  still  survived  in  the  Jewish 
environment.     Whatever  their  origin,  they  threat- 
ened the  growth  of  heresy  similar  in  kind  to  the 
heretical  efflorescence  in  Egypt  and  Syria.     The 
inner  disintegration  coincided  with  the  last  des- 
perate struggle  to  preserve  the  national  indepen- 
dence ;  and  the  failure  of  that  struggle  emphasized 
and  deepened  the  crisis  in  the  spiritual  life.    While 
a  national  centre  with  a  standard  of  Judaism  en- 
dured, esoteric  speculation  could  be  allowed  so  long 
as  it  did  not  undermine  the  loyalty  and  faith  of  the 
main  body.     But  it  became  an  element  of  disso- 
lution when  the  outward  bond  of  cohesion  was 

843 


HELLENISM 

rent  asunder,  and  had  to  be  repressed  in  order  to 
preserve  a  Catholic  Judaism. 

The  greatest  crisis  in  the  struggle  between  Hel- 
lenism and  Judaism  was  reached  when  Hellenistic 
syncretism  threatened,  as  three  centuries  before 
Hellenistic  paganism  had  threatened,  Jewish  mono- 
theism and  the  observance  of  the  law.  In 
face  of  the  peril  the  Jewish  spirit  made  a  supreme 
effort.  A  Puritan  revival,  parallel  with  that 
which  had  been  experienced  in  Babylon,  marked  the 
beginning  of  the  Roman  exile.  The  heads  of  the 
schools  perceived  that  the  heretical  teachings  had 
their  origin  in  the  introduction  of  Greek  theology 
and  Greek  forms  of  thought  into  the  Jewish  mind. 
The  Greek  culture  of  the  time  was  fatal  to  Hebraic 
religion,  and  therefore  they  blamed  it  rather  than 
compromise  their  Judaism  in  any  way.  Mystical 
teaching,  which  bore  the  stamp  of  foreign  influence, 
and  the  allegorical  interpretation,  which  sought  to 
combine  it  with  the  Bible,  were  discouraged.  The 
Hellenistic-Jewish  literature,  which  harbored  non- 
Jewish  elements,  though  preserved  by  the  Gentiles 
to  play  a  part  in  the  intellectual  development  ot 
Europe  for  over  a  thousand  years,  was  cut  out  of 
the  Pharisaic  tradition.  Jewish  culture  was  pruned 
of  its  luxuriant  growth,  in  order  that  it  might  re- 

344 


CONCLUSION 

tain  its  strength  and  withstand  the  storm  which  beat 
about  it. 

In  the  thorough  purgation  of  Judaism,  the 
Rabbis  showed  a  true  appreciation  of  the  conflict 
which  existed  between  Hellenistic  theology  and 
Jewish  monotheism.  That  theology  was  in  fact 
but  a  reincarnation  of  the  old  pagan  mythology; 
and  when  Christianity  ceased  to  be  a  Jewish  heresy, 
it  proceeded  to  incorporate  with  its  Jewish  element 
a  large  part  of  the  myths  of  the  Aryan  and  Semitic 
peoples.  The  abiding  paradox  of  metaphysics  has 
been  pointed  out  by  Anatole  France.  "  Any  ex- 
pression," he  says,  "  of  an  abstract  idea  can  only 
be  an  allegory.  By  an  odd  fate  the  very  meta- 
physicians who  think  to  escape  the  world  of  appear- 
ance are  constrained  to  live  perpetually  in  alle- 
gory. A  sorry  sort  of  poets,  they  attack  the  colors 
of  the  ancient  fables,  and  are  themselves  but  col- 
lectors of  fables.  Their  output  is  mythology,  an 
anaemic  mythology  without  body  or  blood."  The 
early  Greek  philosophers  had  endeavored  to  de- 
stroy the  myths  of  the  popular  religion,  but  their 
successors  weaved  around  their  philosophical  re- 
flections about  God  the  same  mythology  in  another 
form.  And  the  Jewish  Hellenists  had  been  be- 
guiled by  them  into  compromises  of  monotheism. 

345 


HELLENISM 

They  had  sought  greater  exactitude  by  allegorical 
interpretation,  contained  in  a  vague  metaphysic, 
which,  as  it  became  stereotyped,  was  made  the 
basis  of  a  non-Jewish  mythology.  The  image  and 
symbol  were  taken  for  reality,  and  obscured  in  the 
coarser  thinking  of  the  later  age  the  ideas  they  were 
designed  to  explain.  The  Rabbis,  interpreting 
more  truly  the  genius  of  Judaism,  eschewed  the 
dialectic  of  the  metaphysician  and  the  reasoning  of 
the  theologian.  When  they  desired  to  describe  the 
divine  attributes  or  the  transcendental  nature,  they 
turned  frankly  to  fable  and  allegory. 

Nevertheless,  though  the  Hellenistic  branch  was 
lopped  off  from  the  trunk  of  Judaism,  though  the 
Hellenistic  theology  was  rejected,  and  the  Hellenis- 
tic wisdom  placed  under  the  ban,  the  mystic  doc- 
trine, which  had  been  fructified  by  Hellenistic 
influence,  lived  on  in  the  background,  or  rather 
underground,  of  Jewish  thought.  The  written 
record  of  Hellenistic  Judaism  was  discarded,  but 
an  oral  tradition  of  esoteric  speculation  endured  in 
Palestine  as  well  as  the  diaspora.  Greek  ideas  were 
transfixed  in  this  wisdom,  and  thus  entered  into 
the  thought  of  the  people,  coloring  the  Jewish 
intuition  of  the  one  transcendental  God  with 
something   of   the    Greek   Gnosis   or   search    for 

346 


CONCLUSION 

knowledge.  The  undercurrent  of  mystical  thought, 
of  which  we  know  little  but  hear  much  In  the  early 
Haggadah  of  the  Talmud,  outlived  the  Alexan- 
drian Influence  which  had  nourished  It.  But  It  did 
not  find  a  permanent  literary  expression  till  a  fresh 
stream  of  Hellenistic  influence  was  brought  Into  the 
Jewish  world  In  the  early  part  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 

Cut  off  from  the  outer  Intellectual  world  for 
some  five  hundred  years,  and  engaged  In  a  constant 
struggle  to  preserve  their  individuality,  the  Jews 
had  no  leisure  for  philosophical  speculation.     But 
they  were  again  brought,  in  the  tenth  century,  into 
relation  with  It  through  the  Arabic  culture  which 
flourished  about  them  in  Egypt  and  in  Spain.    The 
Renaissance  in  the  East  preceded  that  in  the  West. 
While  Europe  was  sunk  in  the  obscurantism  of  the 
Dark  Ages,  the  systems  of  Aristotle  and  the  neo- 
Platonists  were  stimulating  the  Arabs  to  philoso- 
phy, and,  through  the  Arabic  medium,  came  again 
to  affect  Jewish  ideas.     Indeed,  Saadya  Gaon,  the 
first  Jewish  philosopher  who   deserves   the   title, 
recognized  the  logical  hegemony  of  Aristotle,  but 
contrived  to  distinguish  between  the  Jewish  and  the 
philosophical  outlook.     His  successors  embraced 
the  Greek  metaphysics  more  whole-heartedly.  The 

347 


HELLENISM 

revived  Hellenism,  however,  which  entered   into 
Jewish  mediaeval  thought,  was  not  a  dangerous 
dissolvent.    In  the  first  place,  it  was,  so  to  say,  in  a 
strait  waistcoat,  subjected  already  to  the  service  of 
religion  by  the  Muslim  philosophers  from  whom 
the  Jews  derived  it.     Moreover,  it  no  longer  stood 
for  a  theory  of  Hfe,  nor  was  it  associated  with  a 
competing  religious  outlook,  but  it  was  simply  a 
body  of  knowledge  and  reflection  about  physics  and 
metaphysics.    Jewish  life  and  thought,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  even  more  thoroughly  consolidated  and 
organized  than  they  had  been  in  the  period  of  the 
great  struggle.    A  thousand  years  of  life  under  the 
Law,  together  with  the  constant  study  of  the  ever- 
growing mass  of  tradition  in  Mishnah,  Talmud, 
Midrash,  and  later  commentaries,  had  made  the 
mind  of  the  people  proof  against  the  seduction  of 
foreign  doctrine.     In  the  Golden  Age  of  Spain  the 
influx  of  Hellenism  aroused  the  emulation  of  the 
Jewish  spirit,  and  served  to  deepen  it,  without  pro- 
ducing any  aftermath  in  the  form  of  heresy  and 
sectarianism.    The  expansion  of  the  mystical  teach- 
ing led,  indeed,  to  a  cleavage  between  two  sections 
of  Jewry;  and  the  introduction  of  Greek  philosoph- 
ical ideas  into  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  was 
strenuously    opposed    by    some    of    the    greatest 

348 


CONCLUSION 

thinkers  of  the  time.  But  the  religious  philoso- 
phies of  Ibn  Geblrol,  Maimonides,  and  Gersonldes, 
though  they  evoked  opposition,  were  accepted  into 
Jewish  literature,  and  brought  permanent  influence 
of  Hellenistic  metaphysics  into  the  Jewish  schools 
which  endured  through  the  Middle  Ages  to  modern 
times. 

The  new  Hellenism  was  a  stimulating  force,  and 
it  was  harnessed  to  the  service  of  the  Jewish  re- 
ligion; but  it  had,  from  one  aspect,  an  untoward 
effect  on  Jewish  thought.  The  Greek  master,  to 
whom  most  of  the  Arab-Jewish  school  looked  up, 
was  Aristotle,  who  was  the  greatest  logician  and 
rationalist  of  the  ancient  world.  So  deep  was  their 
respect  that  they  endeavored  to  attach  him  to 
Judaism.  According  to  one  account,'  he  was  a 
pupil  of  Simon  the  Just,  the  high  priest  at  the  time 
of  Alexander  the  Great;  according  to  another, 
which  more  boldly  disregarded  chronology  and  lo- 
cahty,  he  was  associated  with  Gamaliel  when  the 
latter  visited  Rome  in  96  C.  E.  A  third  account, 
still  bolder,  declared  him  a  Jew  of  the  tribe  of  Ben- 
jamin, who  took  away  the  secret  books  of  wisdom 
from  Solomon's  palace  when  Jerusalem  was  cap- 
tured. Similar  stories  had  been  told  by  the 
Christian  scholars,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and 
2^  349 


HELLENISM 

Euseblus;  but  it  was  in  the  revival  of  Jewish 
thought  in  Spain  that  they  first  found  acceptance 
among  the  Jews. 

Certain  correspondences  could  be  detected  be- 
tween the  Aristotelian  theology  and  the  Jewish 
creed.  Aristotle,  at  the  end  of  his  Metaphysics, 
declared  for  monotheism ;  and  he  believed  in  a  tele- 
ological  ordering  of  Nature  which  harmonized 
with  the  demand  of  the  religious  consciousness.  He 
could  be  made  then  to  give  rational  support  to  the 
intuitional  Jewish  conception  of  God.  But  the  con- 
ciliation was  more  apparent  than  real.  Judah 
ha-Levi,  who  vigorously  opposed  the  new  Hellen- 
ism and  asserted  the  right  of  Judaism  to  "  autono- 
mous intellectual  existence,"  pointed  out  the 
contrast  between  the  Jewish  personal  God  of  his- 
tory and  the  Greek  impersonal  principle  of  being, 
the  Prime  Mover.  "  By  no  means  is  the  God  af 
Aristotle  the  God  of  Abraham;  the  way  to  the  lat- 
ter lies  through  emotion  and  the  inner  living  feel- 
ing, and  for  Him  the  soul  aspires.  The  way  to  the 
former  is  through  abstract  thought,  and  the  heart 
beats  not  for  Him.''  Aristotle,  in  truth,  with  his 
intense  rationalism,  was  further  removed  from  the 
religious  soul  than  Plato  whose  teaching  had  in- 
spired the  Alexandrian-Jewish  philosophy,  and  was 

350 


CONCLUSION 

the  basis  of  the  neo-Platonic  speculation  of  an  Ibn 
Geblrol  and  a  Crescas.  His  influence,  which  pre- 
vailed from  the  eleventh  till  the  sixteenth  century, 
tended  to  formalize  Jewish  theology  and  to  invest 
it  with  a  rational  severity  to  which  it  had  hitherto 
been  a  stranger.  The  tendency  was  to  an  extent 
redressed  by  the  mystical  movement  which  derived 
from  the  Jewish  neo-Platonists,  but  rationalism 
remained  the  dominant  tone.' 

The  first  Jewish  scholar  of  modern  times  to  at- 
tack the  rationalizing  movement  was  Samuel  David 
Luzzatto,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  new  Hebrew 
school,  who  flourished  in  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  He  denounced  Maimonides,  the 
chief  Jewish  Aristotelian,  for  disloyalty  to  the 
Jewish  intuitive  standpoint,  and  following  the  line 
of  ha-Levi,  he  broadly  pointed  the  contrast  between 
Hebraism  and  Hellenism — or  Atticism,  as  he  called 
it.*  All  the  philosophy  derived  from  the  Greeks  is 
for  him  a  root  of  gall  and  wormwood.  Atticism  Is 
progressive,  Judaism  Is  stationary.  Atticism  is 
constantly  assuming  new  forms,  Judaism  is  im- 
movable and  seems  old  and  ugly.  But  human 
nature  harbors  an  inextinguishable  love  of  the 
good  which  Judaism,  or  its  spirit,  alone  can  satisfy. 

351 


HELLENISM 

Its  teaching  makes  people  happy,  while  Greek  phi- 
losophy renders  them  pessimistic. 

Luzzatto,  however,  though  he  impugned  the 
scholastic  Jewish  philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
paid  little  heed  to  the  earlier  Jewish  Hellenistic 
literature.  But  nearly  three  hundred  years  before 
he  wrote,  another  Italian  Jew  had  made  that 
literature  the  subject  of  study,  and  tried  to  show  its 
relation  to  Jewish  tradition.  Azariah  dei  Rossi  Is 
the  pioneer  in  the  "  Science  of  Judaism,"  and  he  had 
no  successors  for  three  centuries.  He  translated 
the  Letter  of  Aristeas  into  Hebrew  under  the  title 
of  Hadrat  Zekenim  ("  Glory  of  the  Ancients  ")  ; 
and  in  his  Meor  'Enay'im  he  dealt  with  the  works  of 
Philo  and  Josephus  and  other  Hellenists,  and  at- 
tacked Philo  for  his  allegorical  interpretation  of 
the  narrative  and  legal  parts  of  the  Bible,  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  false  to  the  spirit  of  Judaism. 

Dei  Rossi  lived  before  his  time:  he  was  one  of 
the  few  Jews  of  his  age  to  imbibe  the  spirit  of  the 
European  Renaissance  that  opened  up  to  humanity 
the  Hellenic  treasury.  No  Jew  continued  his  his- 
torical investigations  till  the  time  of  Luzzatto. 
Then,  however,  Krochmal,  the  devoted  student  of 
Galicia,  basing  his  work  on  the  researches  of  the 
German  scholar  Neander,  gave  a  critical  account 

352 


CONCLUSION 

of  the  Hellenistic-Jewish  development  in  his  Guide 
of  the  Perplexed  of  the  Time,  and  restored  it  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  Jewish  scholars.  The  Essene 
speculations  and  the  relation  of  Philo  to  the  Mid- 
rash  received  special  consideration.  He  was  depen- 
dent on  second-hand  sources — for  he  had  no 
Greek — but  his  work  was  fruitful  in  that  it  formed 
the  foundation  of  the  scientific  study  of  the  German 
school.  Bernays,  Zunz,  Frankel,  Graetz,  and  Jel- 
linek  were  masters  of  Greek,  and  possessed  the  ex- 
ternal equipment  necessary  for  independent  judg- 
ment. The  place  of  Hellenistic  literature  in  Jew- 
ish thought  and  its  influence  on  the  world's  history 
were  at  last  elucidated  in  their  writings  from  the 
Jewish  point  of  view.  Enough  and  to  spare  of 
Christian  divines  had  searched  in  it  for  the  source 
and  justification  of  Christian  dogmas,  and  had 
loved  to  contrast  for  their  own  purposes  its  broad 
universalism  and  ethical  spirit  with  the  narrow 
legalism  of  the  Talmud — which  most  could  not 
read.  Historical  justice  began  to  correct  these  easy 
views,  and  it  has  not  yet  completed  its  part.  The 
work  of  Zunz  and  his  contemporaries  has  been 
continued  and  amplified  by  a  large  band  of  Jewish 
scholars,  many  of  them  still  living  and  actively 
prosecuting  their  researches. 

353 


HELLENISM 

A  new  relation  has  been  set  up  between  Hebraism 
and  Hellenism  in  the  present  age.  The  Renais- 
sance of  the  sixteenth  century  let  free  on  western 
European  society  an  overpowering  stream  of  Hel- 
lenism, not  the  impure  medley  of  Alexandrian 
civilization,  but  the  pure  inspiration  of  the  Classi- 
cal Age.  ''  We  are  all  Greeks,"  exclaimed  Maine. 
Our  ideas  of  law,  of  politics,  of  philosophy,  of 
ethics,  in  short,  of  life  are  largely  determined,  on  the 
one  hand,  by  the  ideas  of  the  classical  Hellas  which 
form  the  foundation  of  our  higher  education,  and, 
on  the  other,  by  the  doctrines  of  the  Hellenistic- 
Jewish  syncretism  which,  as  we  have  traced,  formed 
the  basis  of  the  Christian  Church.  As  the  centuries 
went  by,  the  stream  of  the  Renaissance  continued 
to  modify  the  Christian  civilization  enshrining  the 
ideas  of  the  Alexandrian  culture.  It  could  not 
reach  for  a  time  the  Jewish  community  which  was 
cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined  in  its  narrow  ghettos, 
and  forcibly  isolated  from  its  environment.  Its 
appeal  for  clearer  thought  and  the  search  for  truth 
reached  a  few  individuals  only,  who  burst  the 
bonds  which  fettered  them,  notably  Spinoza,  who, 
by  his  synthesis  of  Greek  intellect  and  Jewish  in- 
tuition, laid  the  foundation  of  modern  philosophy. 
But  when  the  French  Revolution  heralded  the  dawn 

354 


CONCLUSION 

of  emancipation  for  the  Jews  of  the  West,  the  In- 
fluence of  outside  thought  became  of  commanding 
Importance.  The  position  of  the  Jews  was  now 
In  many  ways  like  that  which  existed  when  Alex- 
ander conquered  Palestine  and  opened  to  them  the 
Greek  world.  Only  the  attraction  of  the  outside 
culture  was  more  powerful,  because  the  Jews  had 
not  now,  as  they  had  then,  a  national  centre  where 
their  own  standard  of  life  and  thought  flourished 
in  competition  with  the  universal  appeal  of  their 
environment.  The  Jewish  life  In  the  ghetto  was 
Intense,  but  it  was  not  inspiring  as  the  life  of  the 
people  was  In  Judea.  The  position  again  was  quite 
different  from  that  which  existed  in  the  period  of 
emancipation  under  the  Moors  and  Arabs.  Then, 
although  free,  the  Jews  preserved  their  national  or- 
ganization amid  a  friendly  population,  and  the  Hel- 
lenism which  they  invoked  to  the  support  and  pro- 
gressive development  of  their  religion  was  not  part 
and  parcel  of  the  thought  of  the  people,  or  organ- 
ically fused  with  life,  but  a  philosophical  system 
known  to  the  few,  and  strictly  limited  by  them 
to  the  purpose  of  providing  a  rational  basis  for 
theology. 

During  the  nineteenth  century  the  isolation  of 
the  ghetto  In  the  West  was  more  completely  broken 

355 


HELLENISM 

down,  the  mingling  with  the  Gentile  population  was 
more  thorough,  and  the  assimilation  more  rapid. 
The  spread  of  printed  books  and  the  facilities 
for  communication  increased  the  force  of  the  ex- 
ternal culture.  Centuries  of  persecution  also 
caused  Jewish  thought  to  be  obsolete  in  certain 
of  its  concepts,  and  weakened  the  power  of  the 
Jew  to  resist  foreign  ideas.  His  traditions  seemed 
narrow  and  mediaeval  by  the  side  of  the  new  civ- 
ilization in  which  he  could  now  play  a  part. 
They  lacked  the  elegance  and  the  many-sidedness 
of  European  thought.  Hence  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  many  of  the  Jews  of  talent  during  the 
century  assimilated  so  fully  the  outlook  of  their 
environment  that  they  rejected  altogether  the  na- 
tional aspect  of  Judaism,  neglected  altogether  its 
literature,  and  proclaimed  abroad  the  principle  that 
Judaism  was  simply  a  matter  of  religious  creed 
which  asked  nothing  of  its  followers  save  assent  to 
certain  articles  of  belief.  Not  a  few  were  willing 
and  even  eager  to  transform  that  religious  creed 
with  ideas  taken  from  outside ;  a  new  form  of  Minut 
began  to  flourish,  as  dangerous  to  the  integrity  of 
Judaism  as  the  old  heresies;  and  the  attempt  was 
made  again  to  dissociate  the  religion  from  the  law 
and  the  language.    The  feeling  of  race  and  natlon- 

356 


CONCLUSION 

ality  was  indeed  reawakened  among  a  few  who  had 
at  first  felt  most  strongly  the  attraction  of  foreign 
ideas.  The  most  distinguished  Jewish  Hellenist  of 
the  period,  Heinrich  Heine,  could  write  in  his  Con- 
fessions: "  There  was  a  time  when  I  did  not  like 
Moses  overmuch,  probably  because  the  Hellenic 
spirit  predominated  in  me,  and  I  could  not  forgive 
the  law-giver  of  the  Jews  his  hatred  of  images  and 
of  plastic  art.  I  did  not  see  that,  in  spite  of  his 
hostility  to  the  arts,  Moses  himself  was  a  great 
artist.  My  preference  for  Hellas  has  since  de- 
clined :  I  see  now  that  the  Greeks  were  only  beauti- 
ful youths,  but  that  the  Jews  have  ever  been  men — 
strong,  invincible  men."  The  recantation  which 
Heine  made  may  be  repeated  by  his  people. 

Most  of  Heine's  generation,  however,  could  not 
perceive  what  his  genius  grasped,  that,  despite  the 
blandishments  of  Hellenic  civilization,  the  Jewish 
outlook  remained  something  sublime,  distinctive, 
and  worth  preserving.  The  assimilation  progressed 
in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  from 
principle  to  principle,  until  at  last  it  received  a 
shock  like  that  which  awakened  the  nation  to  full 
self-consciousness  in  the  Maccabean  period.  The 
revival  of  brutal  anti-Semitism  in  eastern  Europe 

357 


HELLENISM 

and  of  social  anti-Semitism  in  several  countries 
of  the  West  reminded  the  Jews,  in  many  cases 
against  their  will,  that  whatever  their  assimilation, 
other  peoples  still  regarded  them  as  strangers.  The 
loyal  spirits  among  them  at  the  same  time  saw  with 
dismay  that  the  absorption  of  the  people  and  the 
disappearance  of  their  individual  outlook  were 
threatened  by  an  assimilation  such  as  the  Hellen- 
izers  had  sought  to  force  on  Palestine  two  thousand 
years  earlier.  The  struggle  to  preserve  Jewry 
from  destruction  by  the  Hellenism  of  our  day  has 
its  closest  parallel  in  the  epoch  of  Jewish  thought 
which  we  have  been  considering.  The  nationality 
indeed  was  then  in  a  stronger  position,  because  of 
its  physical  and  spiritual  centre  in  Palestine  and  its 
well-knit  organization  in  the  diaspora.  But  if  the 
outward  conditions  of  the  Jews  are  different,  the 
inner  struggle  and  the  genius  of  Judaism  remain 
the  same.  And  the  harmony  of  Hebraic  and  Hel- 
lenic ideas,  which  was  not  accomplished  in  that 
epoch  because  of  the  debasement  of  the  trans- 
planted Hellenism,  may  be  achieved  in  the  future 
by  a  self-conscious  Jewish  people  which  will  imbibe 
those  elements  of  outside  thought  that  are  ennob- 
ling, but  will  transmute  them  by  the  dominating 

858 


CONCLUSION 

Hebrew  spirit.  Our  civilization,  which  is  based 
partly  on  Hellenic,  partly  on  Hebraic  creations. 
Is  continually  progressing  to  such  a  harmony,  and 
without  it  humanity  will  never  be  tranquil,  and 
culture  will  not  be  complete. 


859 


NOTES 

Chapter  I 

INTRODUCTION 

(pp.  15-50) 

*  Numbers  23.9. 

^  De  Vita  Mo  sis,  II.  124. 
^Psalms  106.  35. 

*  Isaiah  4.  3. 
'"Ibid.  56.  7. 
'Ezekiel  20.  32. 
''Ibid.  37.  II. 

^  See  Margolis,  The  Elephantine  Documents,  in  Je^vish  Quar- 
terly Revie^u,  New  Series,  II,  419. 

'The  Elephantine  papyri  reveal  that  the  Jews  of  Syene  had 
their  own  temple  or  Bamah,  and,  like  the  Jews  in  the  Egyptian 
Delta,  had  a  separate  temple;  but  these  were  exceptional  cases. 

"Sanhedrin  21b. 

"Ben  Sira  39.  i. 

^^  Josephus,  Contra  Apionem,  I.  12. 

"Herodotus  II.  1-4. 

"Aristophanes,  Plutus,  1.  265,  and  Birds,  1.  307. 

"  Joel  4-  6. 

"Butcher,  Harvard  Studies. 

^'  Yoma  69a. 

'' Josephus,  Antiquities,  XII.  8.  12. 

"  Josephus,  Contra  Apionem,  I.  22. 

-°  Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  II.  18.  7. 

"  Josephus,  Antiquities,  XII.  i. 

^  Ibid.,  2  and  3. 

^  Fragment  6.    MS.  Diodotum. 
361 


NOTES 

^*  Comp.  Josephus,  Antiquities,  XI.  2.  ai  5e  5e'/ca  <pv\al  zipai  d<nv 
Evcppdrov  ewj  5evpo,  fxvplades  direipoi. 

''Ibid.,  XVIII.  9. 

"^C.  Flaccum  8. 

"'  Menahot  109b. 

"Reinach,  Bulletin  de  Correspondence  Hell.,  XIII. 

■"  See  Mahaffy,  Athenwum,  3527,  p.  712. 

^'' Strabo  14.  7.  2;  comp.  Josephus,  Contra  Apionem,  11.  4. 

*^  Isaiah  2.  16. 

^*  Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  VII.  3.  3. 

^  Comp.  Pliny,  Leg.  33. 

^  I  Maccabees,  15.  22. 

^^  Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  VI.  9.7. 

^^  De  Vita  Mosis  II.  104,  and  De  Legatione,  II.  587. 

"Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  II.  18.  7;  Antiquities,  XIV.  10.  24, 

"^^  Ibid.,  Antiquities,  XIV.  10;  Corinth.  11.  24;  Philo,  Legum,  23; 
comp.  Sanhedrin  32b. 

'^  Strabo  quoted  by  Josephus,  Antiquities,  XIV.  7.  2. 

*"  Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  VII.  2.  3;  Acts  of  Apostles  9.  2. 

"  Cf.  Macalister,  Civilization  in  Palestine.  The  Greek  ver- 
sion renders  the  word  Philistines  in  Isaiah  9.  (11)  i2  by  Hellenes. 

"Pliny,  Natural  History,  V.  18.74. 

*"  Isaiah  8.  23. 

Chapter  II 
THE  HELLENISTIC  CULTURE 

(pp.  51-84) 

^  Greece  is  the  name  which  the  Romans  gave  to  the  conquered 
land  of  Hellas,  because  they  first  came  into  contact  with  a  tribe 
of  Graeci ;  just  as  Palestine  is  the  name  given  to  the  land  of 
Israel,  because  the  conquerors  first  came  into  contact  with 
Philistia.  But  the  classical  Greeks  always  called  themselves 
Hellenes,  and  their  culture  Hellenism. 

'  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  XII. 

'  Comp.  Lowes-Dickinson,  The  Greek  Vieiv  of  Life. 
362 


NOTES 

'  Ibid. 

'Plato,  Republic,  II.  382. 

^Natural  History,  II.  22. 

^Gilbert  Murray  in  The  Hibbert  Journal,  1910. 

'  Nicomachean  Ethics,  X. 

'Psalm  115.  16. 

"Isaiah  55.8. 

"  Ben  Sira  3.  21. 

Chapter  III 

HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE  TILL  THE  DESTRUCTION 
OF  THE  TEMPLE 

(pp.  85-125) 
^  I  Maccabees  i.  8.  9. 
"Fragment  preserved  by  Diodorus,  XL.  3. 

*  See  Freudenthal,  Hellenistische  Studien. 
*l  Maccabees  i.  14,  and  II  Maccabees  49. 
'  Ben  Sira  24.  3-6. 

'  Daniel  3.  5,  10. 

^  Ben  Sira  38.  i,  seq. 

*  Comp.  Mahaffy's  Greek  Literature,  vol.  I,  p.  417. 

*  Comp.  Ecclesiastes  4.  9. 
"Pirke  Abot  i.  3. 

"  Comp.  Hamburger,  Real-Encyclopadie,  II  s.  v.  Griechen- 
thum. 

"  Daniel  11.  14. 

"  Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  I.  i. 

^*  Antiquities,  XVII.  2.  i. 

"  II  Maccabees  4.  7. 

"  I  Maccabees  i.  13. 

"  II  Maccabees  lo.  19. 

"  Comp.  II  Maccabees  6.  A  remarkable  example  of  relig- 
ious syncretism  of  the  time  has  recently  come  to  light  at  Gezer, 
a  city  not  far  from  the  village  of  Modin,  which  was  to  play  such 
an  important  part  in  the  national  redemption.    A  pillar  has  been 

363 


NOTES 

found  there,  the  one  side  of  which  is  inscribed  with  a  votive 
offering  to  Heracles,  while  the  other  bears  the  name  of  Jehovah 
in  Greek  letters.    (Macalister,  Side  Lights  on  the  Bible.) 

"  I  Maccabees  14.  5. 

""  Testament  of  Levi  XIV.  4. 

^  Gospel  according  to  Matthew  23.  15. 

^Antiquities,  XIV.  9.  4,  and  XV.  i.  i,  i. 

^  Bellum  Judaicum,  V.  i.  3.  and  IV.  4.  3. 

"Mishnah  Shekalim  i.  3;  3.  2;  Gospel  According  to  John 
12.  20. 

''Comp.  M.  Joel,  Elicke,  II,  p.  170. 

''''Antiquities,  XIII.  10.  8;  XVIII.  i.  4. 

"1.16;  11.22. 

"  Sanhedrin  90b;  Mark  12.  12. 

^^  Sanhedrin,  loc.  cit. 

^°8ia\eKT0v  'EWriviKris  napupv/jLot  oaiorrjTos   (chapter  13). 

^^  J  elvish  Encyclopedia,  s.  v.  Essenes. 

'' Shekalim  5.  6. 

^"^  Antiquities,  XVIII,  and  Bellum  Judaicum,  II.  8.  5. 

^*Quod  Omnis  Probus  Liber  Sit,  XII. 

'•'^Antiquities,  XVIII.  2.  i. 

^^Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  II.  8.  7. 

"Refutation  of  all  Heresies,  9.  20,  seq. 

^^  Meor  'Enayim,  Cassel's  edition,  II,  p.  32. 

'*'  Comp.  Historia  Ecclesiastica,  ii.  17. 

**'  Moreh  Nebuke  ha-Zeman,  II.  8. 

"  Ben  Sira  III.  20. 

""  Apollonius  is  a  typical  character  of  the  period,  a  mixture 
of  religious  philosopher  and  miracle-monger,  who  travelled 
over  the  East  collecting  all  kinds  of  magical  lore.  A  modern 
scholar  has  seen  a  corruption  of  his  name  in  the  title  of  the  book 
of  "  Ben  La'anah,"  which  was  barred  by  the  Rabbis  from  public 
reading.  If  the  conjecture  is  correct,  it  would  show  that  Hel- 
lenistic apocalypses  were  studied  by  Palestinian  Jews. 

"Sotah  7.  3;  Megillah  1.9. 

"Yerushalmi  Megillah  71c. 

364 


NOTES 

"  Gottesdienstliche  Vortrdge,  p.  105. 
*''  Sanhedrin  17a. 

■^  Comp.  Yerushalmi  Megillah  73a. 
^'Acts  6.19. 

■^Yerushalmi  Megillah  73d. 
"  Acts  6.  4. 

"  Comp.  Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  i.  21. 
''^  Acts    21.40;     22.2;    Josephus,    Bellum    Judaicum,    V.  9. 2; 
VI.  2.  I. 
''*  Antiquities,  XX.  11.  2. 
"Josephus,  Bellum  Judaicum,  I.  i. 
^Aspects  of  the  Jeivish  Genius  (edited  by  L.  Simon), 

Chapter  IV 
HELLENISM  IN  THE  DIASPORA 

(pp.  126-169) 

■^  Soferim  1.8;  Megillah  9a. 

^  Megillat  Ta'amit  (Hebrew  supplement),  Neubauer,  Medite- 
I'al  Jeivish  Chronicles,  II,  p.  24.    See  Joel,  Blicke,  I.,  p.  6,  seq. 

'  Exodus  24.  lo. 

*  Ibid.  33.  II. 

'Yerushalmi  Megillah  7id;  comp.  also  Babli  9a. 

'  It  is  suggested  that  the  description  of  the  creation  of  the 
world  e/c /LtTj  ovTos  (from  the  non-existent.  III  Mace.  7.28)  re- 
flects Greek  philosophical  teaching;  and  the  emphasis  laid  on 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  may  also  be  due  to  the  foreign  in- 
fluence. 

^  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Graecarum  4838. 

'Compare  Joel,  op.  cit.,  I,  p.  80,  seq. 

^  Amos  8.  II. 

"  Eusebius,  Praeparatio,  20,  seq.  translated  by  Gaisford.  In 
Ben  Sira  there  is  also  a  reference  to  the  making  of  a  reservoir 
for  the  city  of  Jerusalem   (50.3). 

"See  Sibylline  Oracles.  1.  811. 
24  305 


NOTES 

"  Psalm  104.  30. 
"See  later,  chapter  VI. 

"  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  chapter  XV. 
"  Comp.  Josephus,  Coritra  Apionem,  II.  37. 
"Philo,  De  Vita  Mosis,  II.  28. 
'^  Chapter  2.  1-9. 
"  Chapter  4.  1-6. 
''' Chapter  13. 
^Wisdom  of  Solomon  15. 
'^  Psalm  16.  10,  II. 
=^  Ibid.  6.  6. 
''Ibid.  17.15. 
^^Job  14.14. 
^Ecclesiastes  2.  14. 
^Ben  Sira  17.  27,  32. 
"Daniel  12.  2,  3. 

^  See,    on    this    point,    Ahad    Ha'am's    essay    on    "Flesh    and 
Spirit"  {Selected  Essays,  translated  by  L.  Simon,  p.  146). 
"  Comp.  Abot  de-Rabbi  Natan,  edited  Schechter,  p.  26. 
'"Job  28. 

"  Proverbs  8.  22-30. 
^  Ben  Sira  i. 
^^  Ibid.  24.  I,  seq. 
'^Ibid.is.i. 
'^  Wisdom  7.  21,  seq. 
*"  Proverbs  9.  i. 
"Wisdom  of  Solomon  18.  14. 
''Ibid.  9.1,2. 

"  Comp.  Bacher's  IVorterbuch  der  Tannaiten. 
*°  Hosea  12.  4,  5. 
*^  Exodus  15.  22. 
"Isaiah  55.  i. 
"Exodus  15.  25. 

"Proverbs  3.  18;  comp.  Mekilta  53a. 
^  De  Posteritate  Caini,  45. 

**  Comp.  Legum  Allegoriae,  II.  21 ;  De  Somniis,  II.  31,  38. 
366 


NOTES 

**  Mekilta  de-Rabbi  Shim'on  Zz, 

**  Pirke  Abot  6.  2. 

"Numbers   ii.  19. 

*•  Legum  Allegoriae,  III.  6. 

'^  De  Congressu  Eruditorum  Causa,  \.  54. 

"  De  Somniis,  1.  5. 

"  Comp.  De  Migratione  Abraham'i,  20.  20;  De  Spectalihus 
Legibtis,  III.  32. 

'^ Legum  Allegoriae,  i.  135.  Philo,  quaintly  enough,  states  thai 
Moses  received  in  Egypt  this  encyclic  education  from  Greek 
teachers. 

'^  De  Congressu  Eruditorum  Causa,  34. 

"^  Comp.  Outs  Rerum  Divinarum  Heres,  300;  De  Cherubim, 
21-27. 

^  De  Ebrietate,  33. 

^  Legum  Allegoriae,  I.  102. 

"  De  Migratione  Abrahami,  12. 

"  Deuteronomy  13.  i. 

"Ibid.  19.1  j^. 

"De  Justitate,  II.  360. 

"  Quod  Deterius  Potiori  Insidiaiur,  7. 

**  De  Fuga  et  Inventione,  5. 

^  De  Migratione  Abrahami,  5. 

**  Quis  Rerum  Divinarum  Heres,  53. 

*"  De  VitaMosis,  II.  260. 

**  De  Mundi  Qpificio,  24. 

"  Ouaestiones  in  Genesis,  III.  45, 

^^  De  Somniis,  II.  242. 

"  De  Gigantibus,  30. 

''^  Legum  Allegoriae,  III.  119. 

"  Comp.  De  Migratione  Abrahami,  24. 

'*De  VitaMosis,  1.2. 

"  Josephus,  Contra  Apionem,  II.  16. 

"Acts  of  the  Apostles  7. 

"/^/•^.  II. 

"  Comp.  Montefiore,  Judaism  and  St.  Paul. 

"  £)^  Monorchia,  II.  2. 

3G7 


NOTES 

*•  Comp.  Acts  2.  5. 

**  Comp.  Bacon,  The  Making  of  the  Ne-vj  Testament. 

"Comp.  John  3.14;  6.3. 

^  Hebrews  7.  15,  24,  25. 

"  Comp.  Bacon,  op.  cit. 

^^  Epistola  ad  Africanum,  II.  3.  13. 

Chapter  V 
THE  HELLENISTIC  JEWISH  LITERATURE 

(pp.  197-249) 

*  Historia  Ecclesiastica,  I.  23. 

^  This  Eupolemus  is  confused  by  Polyhistor  with  the  Jewish 
writer  of  that  name,  but  is  obviously  writing  from  a  diiTerent 
standpoint. 

^Writers  like  Artapanus  were  really  trying  to  square  the 
data  of  world-history  known  to  them  with  their  national  pre- 
possessions and  traditions.  When  a  modern  historian  does 
the  same  thing,  it  is  called  Scientific  Research. 

*  Comp.  Je'zuish  Quarterly  Re-vie'ZU,  vol.  XV,  p.  337, 
''Letter  of  Aristeas  128. 

^  Ibid.  142,  seq. 

''  Ibid.  1 50,  seq. 

^  Ibid.  234. 

®  Das  Vierte  Makkabaerbuch. 

"Comp.  Eusebius,  Praeparatio  Evangelica,  7.  13;  8.  10;  Clem., 
Strom.  V.  14,  97;  XIII.  12. 

"II  Maccabees  i.  10;  comp.  Eusebius,  Praeparatio  Evangelica, 
8.  10. 

"  Elter,  De  Gnomologia  Graecorum  Historia,  p.  221 ;  Brehier, 
Philo,  p.  48 ;  comp.,  too,  Joel,  op.  cit.  I,  p.  74. 

"See  later,  p.  225. 

"  Ueber  das  Phokylidische  GedicJit. 

"  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Rabbis  expressly  deprecated  the 
deduction  of  general  moralizing  lessons  from  this  command. 
See  later,  chapter  VI,  p.  266. 

368 


NOTES 

^^  Descriptio  Graeciae,  X.  121,  9. 

"Sibylline  Oracles,  HI.  218,  seq. 

"  "Eo-rat  Kal  Zafios  a/x/xos  :   iarelrai  AijXos  adrjXos  :  /cai  /)w/ui;  pi^^a?; 

^^  Ibid.  652,  j^5^. 

^  Hirsch,  T//^  Jeivish  Sibylline  Oracles. 

"^  Comp.  Origen,  Versus  Celsum,  V.  61. 

"^It  is  referred  to  in  the  recently  discovered  Hebrew  frag- 
ments concerning  a  Jewish  sect,  presumably  of  the  first  century, 
as  the  "  Book  of  the  Division  of  Time  by  Sabbatical  Years  and 
Jubilees."  Comp.  Schechter,  Fragments  of  Jewish  Sectaries 
{Introduction). 

^  Genesis  5,  24. 

"^  Isaiah  11.  i. 

'^Psalms  of  Solomon  17. 

''  Enoch  48.  6. 

^  Ibid.  62.  5  ;  69.  29.  For  the  title  "  Son  of  Man  "  comp.  Yeru- 
shalmi  Yoma  42c. 

^^  Enoch  51.3. 

"Ibid.  ^S- 3,4- 
^  Ibid.  8.  i;  69.  9. 
"^  Ibid.  69.  9,  seq. 

^  dva,To\rj,  8v(ns,  dpKTOS,  fxearj/ui^pla. 
'""Ibid.  30.  13. 

"*  Ibid.  65.  2;  comp.  Ben  Sira  17.  3. 

"^Like  Jubilees   this   book  is   referred   to  in   the   recently  dis- 
covered Hebrew  docunient  of  the  supposed  Zadokite  sect. 
"^  Comp.  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  July,  191 1. 
^  In  the  Protestant  Apocrypha  the  book  is  known  as  Esdras  II. 
^11  Esdras  320,  seq. 
""  Ibid.  6.  60. 
""  Ibid.  7.  27. 
**  Ibid.  8.  29,  seq. 
''Ibid.S.^i. 
*^  Ibid.  9.  20. 
**  Ibid.  9.  33. 
*"  Ibid.  7.13. 

369 


53 


NOTES 

*'Ibid.  9.3. 

*'  According  to  an   alternative  reading,  the  number  of  books 
is  two  hundred  and  four. 
^^Josephus,  Vita,  75. 
*^Josephus,  Contra  Apionem,  II.  18. 
^"Josephus,  Bellum  Jiidaicum,  Preface. 
"  Yerushalrai  Kiddushin  59c. 

Psalm  45.  3.    See  Yerushalmi  Megillah  71c. 

Quoted   in    Schechter's   Studies   in   Judaism,   Second    Series, 
P-23. 
"Hagigah  12a. 

'"Origen,  Epistola  ad  Africanum,  2. 
""^  Yerushalmi  Shabbat  6.4;   Yoma  3.8;   Sukkah  3.5. 
^'' Je-Lvis/2  Quarterly  Revie<vj,  VII,  p.  275. 
'"^  Jeiuish  Quarterly  Revieiv,  New  Series,  IV,  p.  9. 

Chapter  VI 

THE  RABBIS  AND  HELLENISM 

(pp.  250-296) 

*  Genesis  9.  27. 

*  Yerushalmi  Megillah  71c;  comp.  Joel,  Blicke,  I.  5. 
^Yerushalmi  Megillah  71c;  Shabbat  115a;  comp.  Joel,  op.  cit, 

pp.  64,  65. 

■*  Yerushalmi  Megillah  71a. 

*  Gittin  9.  8. 
"Megillah  1.8. 

^Baba  Kamma  82b;  comp.  Joel,  op.  cit. 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  XV.  10,  4. 

'It  has  been  suggested  that  Abtalion's  warning,  not  to  be 
exiled  to  a  place  of  evil  waters  lest  those  who  follow  be  cor- 
rupted, refers  to  Alexandria,  where  he  had  probably  lived  io 
exile  with  Judah,  and  that  he  was  pointing  to  dangerous  Alex- 
andrian herdsies.  But  "  the  place  of  evil  waters  "  is  better  taken 
figuratively. 

"WayyikraRabbah34.  3. 

370 


NOTES 

"Pirke  de-Rabbi  Eliezer  i8. 

"Tamid  32a. 

**Tima2us,  8.  40. 

"  Erubin  13b. 

"Pesikta  Rabbati,  Friedmann's  edition,  pp.  84a,  195a. 

*®Neumark,  Geschichte  der  Jiidishen  Philosophie,  vol.  i,  p.  70. 

'^  Pesahim  54a. 

"Bereshit  Rabbah  14. 

^*  Enoch  4.  4. 

*"Berakot  i6b. 

^Bereshit  Rabbah  14. 

**Sanhedrin  38a;  Hagigah  12a. 

^Bereshit  Rabbah  1.2. 
-     **Yalkut2. 

**  Ben  Sira  i.  9;  comp.  above,  chapter  IV,  p,  154. 

^  It  may  be  noted  that  one  of  Philo's  treatises,  in  which  he 
develops  his  mystical  doctrine,  is  entitled  "  Cherubim,"  and 
starts  from  the  description  of  the  angels  stationed  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

^  Comp.  Bemidbar  Rabbah  9.  39. 

^  See  above,  chapter  IV,  p.  159. 

"  Comp.  Lauterbach,  Jeixish  Quarterly  Revietv,  Nev?  Series, 
vol.  I,  p.  503,  seg. 

**  Exodus  21.  6. 

"*  Kiddushin  22b. 

**  Leviticus  25.  55. 

^  De  Poster  it  ate  Ca'ini,  22. 

"Tosefta  Baba  Kamma  7.  6. 

"  Deuteronomy  27.  5. 

''Ibid.,  22.  6,  7. 

"  Galatians  4.  22. 

'*  Romans  II.  28. 

*'  Galatians  III.  10-13. 

*"  Epistles  9. 

*^  Justin,  Dialogue,  40-46. 

**  Clement,  11.  21. 

371 


NOTES 

**  Sanhedrin  99b. 

**  Hagigah  13a. 

"  Isaiah  14.  14. 

**  Proverbs  25.  16. 

*' Psalm  116.15. 

**  Ecclesiasticus  5.  5. 

"  Song  of  Songs  i.  4. 

"*  Hagigah  14b;  Yerushalmi  Hagigah  2.1. 

"  Hagigah  15a. 

'^Yerushalmi  Hagigah  2.  i. 

"  Hagigah  14b. 

^Ibid.  15  a. 

""Ibid. 

•*  Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

"  Ibid.  14a. 

"Pirke  Abot  3.  19. 

**  Yerushalmi  Yadayim  3.5. 

*^  Song  of  Songs,  Homily  IV. 

"Yerushalmi  Sotah  24a. 

"Hullin  60a;  Bekorot  8b. 

"  Niddah  69b. 

«  Historia  Ecclesiastica,  IV.  2.     Dio,  LXXVII.  32. 

"*  Sanhedrin  10.  5. 

*'Berakot  6ib. 

"  Deuteronomy  30.  20. 

"Joshua  1.8. 

"Menahot  99b. 

"  Sanhedrin  n.  r.     (Joel,  Bliche,  I,  p.  72,  seq.) 

"Midrash  Kohelet  12.  13.  Joel(o/>.  cit.,  p.  74) ingeniously  sug- 
gests, however,  that  Ben  Sira  is  here  a  mistake  for  Ben  Satda 
(Christian  books).  Ben  Sira  belonged  to  the  class  of  external 
books  which  was  not  for  common  study,  but  not  to  the  class  which 
was  altogether  reprobated. 

^  Jeicish  Quarterly  Review,  III,  541. 

"  Sanhedrin  icxjb. 

372 


NOTES 

"  Comp.  Schechter,  Jeivish  Quarterly  Revieiv,  III,  682. 
"  Shabbat  30a. 

"  Abot  de-Rabbi  Natan.     (Schechter's  edition,  pp.  2,  3.) 
"Shabbat  13b;  Menahot  45a. 

"It  is  noteworthy  that  Ben  Sira  obtained  in  the  Christian 
Church  the  name  of  Ecclesiasticus,  just  because  it  was  deemed 
fit  for  reading  in  Church  (Ecclesia).  Together  with  the  other 
books  of  the  Apocrypha,  it  was  retained  in  the  public  ritual  as 
possessing  a  moral  value,  though  not  invested  with  independent 
dogmatic  authority. 

""  Contra  Apionem,  I.  8. 
*^  Yadayim  3.  5. 
^  Hagigah  2.  i. 
"  Yerushalmi  Hagigah  2.  1. 
***  Sotah  49a. 
""Ibid. 

'"Tosefta  Sotah  5.8. 
"Yerushalmi  Megillah  71c. 
**  Sotah  49b. 

*'Soferim  i.  7;  Megillat  Ta'anit  (Hebrew  supplement),  Neu- 
bauer,  Mediaval  Jeivish  Chronicles,  II,  p.  24. 
'"Hosea  8.  12. 
"  Tanhuma   Wayyera. 
^'Pirke  Abot  3.23. 

^  Comp.   Quod  Deterius  Potiori  Insidiatur   191,    197;   Legum 
Allegoriae,  I.  102. 
"^Berakot  28b. 
"Shabbat  ii6a. 

Chapter  VII 
THE  AFTERMATH 
(pp.  297-330) 
^Yerushalmi  Sanhedrin  29b. 
^  Mekilta  22.  20. 

^  Berakot  lob.  Renan  deprecates  the  suggestion  of  the  impor- 
tance of  the  Christian  version  as  against  the  Jewish  at  this 
period. 

25  373 


NOTES 

*  Zechariah  lo.  4. 
'  Yerushalmi  Sanhedrin  20c. 
''Psalms  26.  5. 
^  Yerushalmi  Berakot  yd. 
^Bereshit  Rabbah  65.  16. 
■*  Longinus,  chapter  9. 
^' Comp.  Origen,  Versus  Celsum,  5.43. 
"Bereshit  Rabbah  1.2. 
''Sukkah  51b. 
"Megillah  9b. 
"  Genesis  Rabbah  16.  7. 

^^  See  Juster,  Les  Juifs  dans  I'Empire  Romain,  vol.  I,  p.  366. 
^'^  Joel,  cp.  cit.,  I,  p.  52,  seq. 

"  Moed  Katon  28b:  ws  (nrelpa  ev  arotiari  'iarov. 
^*  Yerushalmi  Rosh  ha-Shanah  57a:  irpb    jSao-iXcws    6    voixos    ov 
ypatpels. 

"Yerushalmi  Nedarim  38a:7roXu,  Kvpie,  ejSpei^as. 
'"  Bereshit  Rabbah  36.  12. 
^Yerushalmi  Sotah  24c. 
''Ibid.  2 lb. 
"  Megillah  6a. 
^"Bereshit  Rabbah  11.  7. 

'^Comp.  Jeivish  Quarterly  Revieiv,  III,  357. 
=^Hullin  60a. 

"  The  words  philosopher   and  Miii   are  used  almost  synony- 
mously for  a  person  who  disputed  Jewish  monotheism. 
'^  Legum  Allegoriae  3-  i34- 
''Berakot  55a. 
'"  Yerushalmi  Hagigah  77c. 
"Hagigah  13a. 

-*  Geschichte  der  Jiidischen  Philosophie. 
^^  Novel  146. 

"See  Zunz,  Gottesdienstliche  Vortrdge,  p.  301.    Comp.  also  on 
this  question  Juster,  op.  cit.,  I,  p.  374- 
^  Comp.  Epstein,  Revue  des  Etudes  Julves,  vol.  XXI. 
374 


NOTES 

^  Comp.  Steinschneider,  Je^vish  Quarterly  Revieiu,  vol.  XVI, 
p.  390,  seq. 

Chapter  VIII 
CONCLUSION 

(PP-  331-359) 

^  Comp.  James  Darmesteter's  "  Essay  on  the  History  of  the 
Jews." 

"Comp.  Horowitz,  Die  Stellung  des  Aristotels  bet  den  Juden 
des  Mittelalter. 

"  An  interesting  study  of  the  mediaeval  Jewish  attitude 
toward  Greek  philosophy  is  to  be  found  in  an  essay  on  "  Mai- 
monides  and  Halevi,"  by  H.  Wolfson,  Jeivish  Quarterly  Revieiu, 
New  Series,  II,  p.  297,  seq. 

* "  Atticism  and  Judaism  "  in  IDHJ  n^flK. 


875 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I.  BOOKS  DEALING  WITH  THE  WHOLE  SUBJECT 
The  Apocrypha. 

Schiirer,  E.,  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Jesus, 
Wellhausen,  J.,  Jewish  History. 
Graetz,  H.,  History  of  the  Jews,  vols.  II  and  HI. 
Renan,  E.,  The  Origins  of  Christianity. 
Hamburger,  Real-Encyclopadie  fiir  Bibel  and  Talmud. 
Juster,  Jean,  Les  Juifs  dans  I'Empire  Romain. 
Friedlaender,  M.,  Zur  Entstehung-Geschichte  des  Christenthums. 
Die  Jiidische  Apologetik. 

Die  Religiose  Bewegungen  der  Juden  im  Zeitalter  Jesus. 
Wendland,  Die  Hellenistisch-Romische  Kultur  in  ihrem  Bezug 

zu  Judenthum  und  Christenthum. 
Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  s.  v.  Apocrypha,  Diaspora,  etc. 
Bauer,  \^n  Griechenthum  zu  Christenthum. 
Friedlander,  G.,  Hellenism  and  Christianity. 

IL  BOOKS  DEALING  WITH  SPECIAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE 
SUBJECT 

(a)  Hellenistic  Culture 
Lowes-Dickinson,  The  Greek  View  of  Life. 
Zeller,    E.,    History    of    Greek    Philosophy:     Stoics,    Epicureans, 

and  Sceptics. 
Murray,  Gilbert,  Hellenistic  Religion.     {Hibbert  Journal,  1910.) 
Bevan,   E.  A.,  The  First  Contact  of  Hellenism  with  the  East. 

{Quarterly  Remeiv,  19 10.) 
Butcher,  S.  H.,  Harvard  Essays. 

377 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(b)  Hellenism  in  Judea 
Smith,  G.  A.,  Jerusalem. 

The  Minor  Prophets. 
Freudenthal,  Hellenistische  Studien. 

W-llrich,  Juden  und  Griechen  in  der  Vor-Makkabaischen  Zeit. 
Bevan,  E.  A.,  The  Seleucid  Empire. 
Kautzsch,  E.,  Pseudepigraphen  der  Juden. 

(c)  Hellenism  in  the  Diaspora 

Philo,  Edited  by  Cohn  and  Wendland. 

Siegfried,  Philon  als  Ausleger  des  Alten  Testaments. 

Brehier,  Les  Idees  Philosophiques  et  Religieuses  de  Philo. 

Drummond,  The  Alexandrian-Jewish  Philosophy. 

Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  The  Silver  Age  of  Greece. 

Bacon,  The  Making  of  the  New  Testament. 

(d)   Hellenstic-Jewish  Literature 

Josephus,  Edited  by  Niese. 

Eusebius,  Praeparatio  Evangelica,  edited  by  Gifford. 

Reinach,  Th.,  Textes  des   auteurs  grecs  et  romains  relatifs  au 

Judaisme. 
Bernays,  Gesammelte  Schriften. 
Thackeray,  H.  St.  J.,  The  Letter  of  Aristeas. 
Charles,  R.  H.,  The  Book  of  Enoch. 

The  Slavonic  Book  of  Enoch. 

The  Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs. 

The  Assumption  of  Moses. 
Duff,  The  Books  of  Esdras. 
Rendel-Harris,  The  Odes  of  Solomon. 
Hirsch,  S.  A.,  Sibylline  Oracles  (Collected  Essays). 
Zunz,  L.,  Gottesdienstliche  Vortriige  der  Juden. 


378 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(e)  The  Rabbis  and  Hellenism 
Graetz,  Gnosticism  in  Judenthum. 
Taylor,  C,  Sayings  of  the  Jewish  Fathers. 
Bacher,  W.,  Agada  der  Tannaiten. 

Agada  der  Amoraer. 

Worterbuch  der  Tannaiten. 
Joel,  M.,  Blicke  in  die  Religionsgeschichte  zu  Anfang  des  Zweiten 

christlichen   Jahrhunderts. 
Krauss,  S.,  Lehnworter. 
Strack,  Tractat  Aboda  Zara. 
Krochmal,  N.,  Moreh  Nebuke  ha-Zeman. 
Neumark,  D.,  Geschichte  der  Jiidischen  Philosophie. 
Harnack,  A.,  The  Expansion  of  Christianity,  vol.  I. 
Lauterbach,  J.  Z.,  The  Ancient  Jewish  Allegorists.    {Jewish  Quar- 
terly Revietv,  New  Series,  vol.  i.) 
Montefiore,  C.  G.,  Judaism  and  St.  Paul. 


379 


INDEX 


Abbahu,  amora,  309. 

Abtalion,  tanna,  100,  254,  370. 

Adam  Kadmon,   181. 

Ahad  Ha'am.  366. 

Ahasuerus,  23. 

Aher,    274;     see    also    Elisha    ben 

Abnyah. 
Akiba,   tanna,    247,    272,    273,   275, 

276,   277,    278,    280,    300,    302, 

317- 
Alexander   the   Great,    24,    28,    29, 

30,  31,  Z2,  33,   35,  45.  47,  48. 

54,  55,  61,  65,  70,  85,  86,  208, 

216,   255,  Z32,  349,  355- 
Alexander  Jannaeus,  99,  1^6,  254. 
Alexander  Polyhistor,  129,  199;  see 

also  Polyhistor. 
'Am  ha-Arez,  Galilean,  114. 
Ambrosius,  320. 
Ami,  amora,  315. 
Amos,   135. 

Anileus,  a  Jew  of  Nehardea,  35. 
Antigonus  of  Soco,  tanna,  92. 
Antiochus  III,  94- 
Antiochus    Epiphanes,    89,    93,    94, 

95,  96,   120,  132. 
Antoinette,  Marie,  82. 
Aphrodite,  57. 
Apion,  26. 

Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  the,  233. 
Apocalypses,  the,  198,  223. 
Apocalyptic  literature,  109- 117,  22^. 
Apocalyptics,    the,    224,    225,    227, 

229. 
Apocrypha,  the,  198. 
Apollo,  57,   133- 
Apollonius  of  Tyana,  113,  364. 
Aquila,  247,  248,  252,  287,  294,  307, 

322,   323.  334- 


Ares,   57. 

Aristeas,  127,  134,  204,  206,  208. 
Letter  of,  134,  137,  203,  204,  209, 

213,   216,  352. 
Aristobulus,    134,  312. 
Aristobulus,     Alexandrian     Jewish 

philosopher,  116,  212,  213,  214. 
Aristobulus,    "  Exegesis  "    of,    134, 

226. 
Aristophanes,  25,  59,  361. 
Aristotle,  29,  30,  63,  67,  68,  69,  211, 

249,  288,  347,  349,  350. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  51. 
Artapanus,    a    historical    romancer, 

136,  368. 
Artaxerxes   I,   20. 
Asineus,  a  Jew  of  Nehardea,  35. 
Assouan,  Aramaic  papyri  found  at, 

18. 
Assumption   of  the   Prophets,   the, 

284. 
Assumption  of  Moses,  the,  235. 
Astarte,   worship   of,   88. 
Athene,   57. 
Atticus,      philosopher      of      fourth 

century,  249. 
Augustine,  320. 


Bacchus,  6z,  97. 

Bacher,  W.,   13,  366. 

Bacon,  368. 

Balaam,  blessings  of,  15. 

Bar  Cochba,  the  rising  of,  278. 

Bar  Kappara,  285,  309,  310,  315. 

Barnabas,  gnostic,  268. 

Ben  Azzai,  tanna,  272,  273. 

Ben  La'anah,  the  book  of,  282,  364. 

Ben  Satda,  372. 


381 


INDEX 


Ben  Sira,  22,  68,  89,  90,   112,  116, 

148,   197,  262,  282. 
Ben  Toglah,  the  book  of,  282, 
Ben   Zoma,    tanna,    272,    273,    274, 

280. 
Bernays,  317,  353. 
Boethus,  Alexandrian  family,    116. 
Book  of  Enoch,  227,  230,  232,  259, 

Book  of  Ezra,  the,  235,  245. 
Book  of  Jubilees,  225-227,  328,  329. 
Book  of  Raziel,  the,  327. 
Brehier,   368. 
Butcher,  S.  H.,  51,  361. 

Caesar,  Julius,  251. 

Cain,  symbol  of  impious  pride,  182. 

Cainites,  the,  291,  292. 

Caird,  Professor,  53. 

Celsus,  pagan  impugner  of  Christi- 
anity, 222,  304. 

Chance,  worship  of,  61. 

Christian  Science,  spread  of,  62. 

Cleanthes,  Stoic,  29,  30,  71,  T2. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  213,  268, 
270,  312,  349- 

Cleodemos,  Malchos,  200. 

Cleopatra,  115- 

Constantine,  emperor,  218,  319. 

Crescas,  329,  351. 

Cynics,  the,  72,  75. 

Cyril,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  320. 

Cyrus,  23,  34. 

Darmstetcr,  James,  375. 

dei  Rossi,  Azariah,  107,  352. 

Demetrius,  Chronicles  of,  132,  199. 

Dio  Cassius,  278. 

Diodorus,  Greek  historian,  215,  363. 

Diogenes,   185. 

Dionysus,  festival  of,  133. 

Dionysus,  patron  deity  of   Scytho- 

polis,  88. 
Dionysus  Sabazios,  97. 
Divine  Presence,  doctrine  of,   175- 


Domninus,     Jewish     neo-Platonist, 

249. 
Dorshe    Hamnrot,     160,    206,    264, 

265. 
Dorshe  Reshumot,  159,  161,  266. 
Dositheus,  115. 

Ebionites,  the,  109,  286. 
Eighteen  Benedictions,  229,  292. 
Eleazar,  tanna,  205,  206,  247,  286, 

299. 
Eleazar  Hisma,   290. 
Eleazar  ben  Pedat,  308. 
Eliezer  ben  Hyrcanus,  270,  271. 
Eliezer  ben  Jose  of  Galilee,  269. 
Eliezer,  tanna,   162. 
Elijah,   teacher  of  Pythagoras,   79. 
Elisha  ben  Abuyah,  272,  274,  275. 

302. 
Elter,  368. 

Epicureans,  the,  70,   144,   146,   150. 
Epicureanism,  yj,  78. 
Epicurus,  77,  78,  81,   185. 
Epstein,  374. 
Essenes,  the,  81,  102,  104,  105,  107, 

108,    109,    120,    162,    171,    172, 

173,  335,  353. 
Euergetes,  king  of  Egypt,  116. 
Eupolemus,     Hellenistic     historian, 

92,  200,  368. 
Euripides,  59,  138. 
Eusebius,    105,    171,   i99>  278,  3^0, 

36s,  368. 
Ezekiel,  Jewish  Greek  writer,   136. 
Ezra,  reformation  of,   19. 

Falashas,  the,  227. 
France,  Anatole,  345. 
Frankel,  Z.,   353. 
Freudenthal,  200,  203,  209,  363. 
Friedlaender,  Israel,  14. 
Friedlaender,   Moritz,    12. 
Fortune,  worship  of,  61. 

Gainsford,  365. 

Galilean  'Am  ha- A  res,  114. 

382 


INDEX 


Gamaliel,  349, 

Gamaliel  II,  287. 

Gersonides,  349. 

Gibbon,  E.,  142. 

Graetz,  Heinrich,  310,  353. 

Greek  version,    130,   246,  247;   see 

also  Septuaguit,  the. 
Grote,  historian,  362. 

Hadrian,  301. 

Hai  Gaon,  276. 

Haman,  attacks  of,  33. 

Hananiah  ben  Hezekiah,  282. 

Hanina,  amora,  308. 

Hasidim,  the,  93,  97,  102,  105. 

Hassideans,  92,  97. 

Hebrew  Canon,  the,   109,  no,  112, 

128,    195,    225,    248,   281,    282, 

283,  284. 
Hecataeus,     Greek     historian,     87, 

215,  216. 
Heine,  Heinrich,  357. 
Heraclitus,  Ionian  philosopher,  26, 

74,   138. 
Heracles,  Phoenician  origin  of,  87, 

96,  200. 
Hermes,     mediation    of,    180,    201, 

202. 
Hermetic  writings,    113. 
Herod,    116,    120,  251,  310. 
Herodotus,  25,  361. 
Hesiod,  74,  158. 
Ilillel,   tanna,    loi,    124,   254,   255, 

256,  267,  316. 
Hippolytus,  105,  106. 
Hirsch.  S.  A.,  369- 
Homer,   73,   74.  9i.    158,  220,  221, 

304- 
Homeric  mythology,  60. 
Homeros,   the  books  of,   282. 
Horowitz,  375- 
Horus,  66. 

Hosha'ya,  amora,  310,  311,  312. 
Huna,  Rab,  amora,  306. 
Hypsistanae,  the,  291. 


Ibn  Gebirol,  329.  349.  35i- 
Ishmael,  tanna,  276,  280,  293. 
Isis,  63,  64,  66. 

Jannes    and    Jambres,    history    of, 

138. 
Jason,  87,  95,  96. 
Jason,  a  Carian  Jew,  133. 
Jason  of  Gyrene,  132,  209. 
Jellinek,  A.,  353. 
Jerome,  church  father,  40,  286. 
Jesus,    189,    192,    193. 
Joel,  M.,  307,  364,  368,  370,  374. 
Johanan,   amora,    309. 
Johanan  bar  Nappaha,  308. 
Johanan    ben    Zaccai,    tanna,    263, 

264,  265,  270,  271,  316. 
Johanan  of  Eleutheropolis,  306. 
John  the  Baptist,  109. 
John  Hyrcanus,  99. 
Johnson,  Samuel,  63. 
Jonathan,  98. 
Jose  of  Galilee,  275. 
Josephus,  24,  26,  29,  ZZ,  34,  4i-  ^^. 

94,     loi,    103,    105,     106,    107. 

121,    122,    127,    143,    187,    209, 

241-245,    283,    352,    361,     362, 

364,  36s,  366,  367,  370. 
Joshua,  amora,  313. 
Joshua    ben    Hananiah,    247,    273, 

277. 
Joshua  ben  Levi,  311,  312;  Mystery 

of,  326. 
Judah,  amora,  313. 
Judah  ben  Hai,  305,  315. 
Judah  ben  Pazzi,  273. 
Judah  ben  Tabbai,  287. 
Judah  ha-Nasi,  285,  298,  308,  309. 
Judah  ha-Levi,  329,  350,  351. 
Judas  Maccabeus,  98,  200. 
Julian,  emperor,  319. 
Juster,  Jean,  374. 
Justinian,     anti-Jewish     legislation 

of,  321. 
Justus  of  Tiberias,  241. 
Juvenal,  291. 


383 


INDEX 


Kabbalah,  the,  327. 
Karaites,  the,  324- 
Krauss,  S.,  249. 
Krochmal,   N.,    iii,   352- 

Lauterbach,   J.   Z.,  371. 

Levi  bar  Haita,  310. 

Libertini,  the,  118. 

Luther,  Martin,  310. 

Luzzatto,   Samuel  David,  351,  352. 

Lysimachus,  son  of  Ptolemy,  115- 

Ma'aseh  Bereshit,  257,  285. 
Ma'aseh    Merkabah,    257,   263. 
Macalister,  362,  364. 
Macaulay,   i77- 

Maccabees,    Second    Book   of,    209. 
212;  Fourth  Book  of,  209,  213. 
Mahaffy,  362,  363- 
Maimonides,  329,  349,  35 1. 
Maine,  354- 

Manetho,   Egyptian   historian,    131. 
Marcion,  gnostic,  2i;8. 
Marcus  Aurelius,  301. 
Margolis,  M.  L.,  361. 
Maszol-Tov,   the  Jewish  goodwish, 

63. 
Meir,  tanna,  302,  303,  305- 
Meleager,  48. 
Men  of  the  Great   Synagogue,   20, 

23,  59- 
Menander,  comedies  of,  i39- 
Menelaus,  96. 

Metatron,  angel,  273,  274,  327- 
Midrash  Konen,  the,   328. 
Midrash  Tadshe,  the,  328. 
Minim,  the,  284,  290,  291,  292,  312, 

374- 
Minut,  291,  292,  303,  356. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  191. 
Montefiore,  C.  G.,  367. 
Moses.  20,   130,   184,   185,  200. 
Miiller,  Max,  179- 
Murray,  Gilbert,  3(^3- 
Musaus,  verses  on,  138;  identified 

with  Moses,  202. 


Neander,  3^2. 

Nehunyah  ben  ha-Kanah,  302. 
Neo-Platonists,  the,  79. 
Neo-Pythagorean  brotherhood,  63. 
Neo-Pythagorean    school,     79.    Si, 

107,   139,   144,  150,    158. 
Neumark,  David,  316,  371- 
Nicholas  of  Damascus,  241. 
Numbers,  veneration  of.  225. 
Numenius  of  Apamea,  303. 

Odes  of  Solomon,  the,  234. 

Oenomaus  of  Gadata,  303. 

Olympian  gods,  58,  8". 

Olympian  hierarchy,  56,  73. 

Onias,  36. 

Onias,  family  of,  94. 

Onias  III,  94,  95,  96. 

Onias  IV,   116,   132. 

Ophites,  the,  291. 

Origen,  church  father,  195,  270, 
275,  310,  311.  312,  369,  370. 
374. 

Orpheus,  verses  on,   138,  202,  203. 

Orphism,  Hellenic  mystical  teach- 
ing, 63. 

Osiris,  64,  66. 

Ossian,    140. 

Pan,  patron  deity  of  Panios,  88. 

Pan,  temple  of,   133. 

Paul,    apostle,    40,    121,    267.    280, 

292. 
Pauline  Epistles,  267. 
Pausanias,  218. 
Perseus  and  Andromeda,  story  of, 

87. 
Persius,  291. 
Perushim,  the,  93. 
Pharisees,  the,    100,    102,   104,    105, 

113,   116,   120,   150,   336. 
Philemon,  Greek  comic  poet,  216. 
Philip  the  Macedonian,  28,  54. 
Philo-Judffius,    15,    34.    36,    41,    43. 

127,     143,     157-187,     190,     191, 
1  192,    193,    197,    212,    21J,    214, 


384 


INDEX 


226,  231,  232,  23Sf  240,  244. 
249,  260,  261,  263,  264,  265. 
270,  27s,  291,  293,  303,  311. 
312,  314,  317,  328,  329.  339. 
340,  341,  352,  353,  370. 
"  Philo,"  105,  106. 
Philo,  author  of  a  narrative  poem 

in  Greek,  137. 
Philocrates,   204. 
Philodemus,  47. 
Phineas  ben  Jair,  328. 
Phocylides,    138,   217,   219. 
Photius,  241. 
Plato,  26,  59,  68,  69,  74.   i77,  249. 

255,  288,  351,  363. 
Platonists,  the,  139- 
Pliny,  61,  362. 
Plutarch,  29. 

Pollion,  loi;  see  Abtalion. 
Polyhistor,  368. 
Pompeius,  119.  250,  251,  233. 
Porch,  school  of  the,  178. 
Psalms  of  Solomon,  228,  234. 
Pseudo-Aristeas,   92. 
Pseudo-Artapanus,  201,  202. 
Pseudo-Eupolemus. 
Pseudo-Hecatseus,  216. 
Pseudo-Phocylides,    218. 
Pseudo-Solomon,  151- 
Pseudepigraphic      literature,      109- 

117,  203. 
Ptolemy,  32,  37,  86,  92,  115. 
Ptolemy     Philadelphus,     127,     128, 

130,  204,  205. 
Ptolemy  Soter,  215. 
Ptolemies,  the,  45.  65,  94.  "5.  131. 

132,  205,  212,  214,  336. 
Pythagoras,   79.   81,    107,    108,   185. 
Pythagorean  school,  80,  81. 
Pythagoreans,  the,  80. 

Quietus,  287. 

Rab,  amora,  261. 
Rabbah,  amora.  313.  3i4- 
Reinach,  zdz. 


Renan,  Ernest,  41,  373. 
Reuben,  amora,  313. 

Saadya,  329,  347- 

Sadducees,  the  102,   103,   104,   109. 

150,  324;  see  also  Zadokites. 
Sameas,  100;  see  Shemaiah. 
Scaliger,  204,  217. 
Sceptics,  the,  79. 
Schechter,  Solomon,    14.   366,   369. 

373- 
Schiirer,  E.,  13,  100,  199- 
Scriptures,    Greek    translation    of, 
115,    127,    128,    129;    see   also 
Septuagint  Version. 
Sefer  ha-Yashar,  327. 
Sefer  Hekalot,  326,  327, 
Sefer  Yezirah,  z2-j. 
Sefirot,  doctrine  of,  328. 
Seleucus  I,  33. 

Seleucids,  the,  65,  86,  94,  132. 
Seneca,  Roman  philosopher,  188. 
Septuagint   Version,    92,    115,    129, 
130,    ^22,    138,    195.    197.    198, 
199,    200,    203,    246,    247,   289, 
294,  322,  323,  324,  337. 
Sethites,  the,  291. 
Severus,   278,  319. 
Shammai,  254,  255,  256,  257 
Shekinah,  doctrine  of,   I75- 
Shemaiah,  tanna,   100,  254. 
Sibyl,  the,  140,  203. 
Sibyl,  verses  on  the,  138,  218. 
Sibylline  oracles,  the,  141,  215,  218, 

223. 
Sibyllistae,  the,  222. 
Sicimos,  son  of  Hermes,  201. 
Simon  the  Just,  92,  349. 
Simon  ben  Gamaliel,  253,  287. 
Simon   ben   Judah,   265. 
Simon  ben  Lakish,  308. 
Simon  ben  Shetah,  254. 
Simon  ben  Yohai,  298, 
Simon,  L.,  365,  366. 
Socrates,  67,  68,  74,   185. 
I    Socratic  system,  80. 

385 


INDEX 


Sophocles,  138,  203,  216. 

Spinoza,  Baruch,  354. 

Steinschneider,  M.,  375. 

Stephen,  one  of  the  "  Grecian 
Jews,"    189. 

Stoics,  the,  70,  71,  73,  74.  75,  76, 
78,  79,  81,  82,  104,  107,  144, 
150,  158,  178,  186,  208,  211. 

Stoicism,  71,  77,  211. 

Strabo,  33,  37,  43,  362. 

Targum,  the,  115,  118,  128. 

Targum   Onkelos,   252. 

Tarphon,  tanna,  293. 

Tatian,   286. 

Testaments  of   Twelve    Patriarchs, 

the,  234,  284. 
Theocritus,  idylls  of,  91. 
Theodosius,   anti-Jewish  legislation 

of,  321. 
Theodotion,  248. 
Theodotus,  201. 

Theophrastus,  30.  . 

Therapeutae,  the,  164,  171,  173. 


Titus,   121,  19T. 
Tobiades,  the,  94. 
Trojan,  287,  301. 

Vespasian,  122. 
Voltaire,   319. 

Wisdom  of  Solomon,  145-1+7,  151, 
152,  154,  197,  233,  243,  249. 
259,  283. 

Xenophanes,  Ionian  philosopher, 
26. 

Yabneh,  the  vineyard  of,  263. 

Zadokites,  the,    103;  see  also  Sad- 

ducees. 
Zarathustra,    23. 
Zeno,  Stoic,  71. 
Zerubbabel,  34. 
Zeus,  72,  97. 
Zeus  Olympics,  96, 
Zeus  Xenios,  96. 


Z'^t  Box^  (^afttntor*  (preset 

BALTIUORE,   UD.,   V.  8.   A. 


386 


